U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports is primarily aimed at China, according to a report by The New York Times (NYT) on February 10.

President Trump announced the plan to impose an additional 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum products imported into the U.S. during a conversation with reporters aboard Air Force One the previous day.

Although China is not among the top exporters of steel and aluminum to the U.S., its "overproduced" products are being sold at lower prices in the global market, negatively impacting the fragile U.S. domestic steel industry. This prompted President Trump to take action with steel and aluminum tariffs targeting the entire world, as diagnosed by NYT.

As of January, the top five countries exporting steel to the U.S. are Canada, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and Germany, with China absent from the list.

In September of the previous year, then-President Joe Biden had already raised tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum to 25%, resulting in a decline in China's steel and aluminum exports to the U.S.

While direct exports of Chinese steel to the U.S. are not substantial, the NYT noted that the flood of cheap Chinese products into global markets, including Canada and Mexico, is assisting these countries’ exports to the U.S. In response to China's underperforming domestic economy, overproduced steel and aluminum are being exported cheaply to U.S. allies such as Canada and Mexico, enabling these countries to increase their own steel and aluminum exports to the U.S.

The NYT also reported that countries like Canada and Mexico can now use the low-priced steel and aluminum imported from China for domestic consumption, allowing them to export more of their own production to the U.S. at higher prices.

In the case of Vietnam, large quantities of semi-finished products are being imported from China, processed into finished products, and then re-exported as "Vietnamese" goods.

Ultimately, Chinese overproduction, resulting from weak domestic demand due to the slump in China’s construction industry, is flooding global markets at low prices, affecting the U.S. steel industry.

According to the NYT, the U.S. is not the only country responding to the overproduction of Chinese steel and aluminum with tariffs. Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, and Turkey have also raised tariffs on Chinese steel products in the past year.