In a letter to President Donald J. Trump, Aluminum Association President & CEO Heidi Brock expressed concerns about the president’s recent announcement of a global tariff on aluminum products imported into the United States. The Aluminum Association’s member companies represent the entire industry value chain and the vast majority of domestic aluminum production.

You can read the full letter here.

“On behalf of the aluminium bitumen flashing tape 114 member companies and the 713,000 U.S. jobs our industry supports, we are grateful for the attention that you and your administration have dedicated to our industry,” Brock said in the letter. “However, we are deeply concerned about the effects of a global tariff on aluminum production and jobs in the United States."

The letter proposes an alternative approach to address the serious trade challenges facing the domestic aluminum industry today:Unfortunately, the tariffs proposed will do little to address the fundamental problem of massive aluminum overcapacity in China, while impacting supply chains with vital trading partners who play by the rules,” added Brock. “We fear that the proposed tariff may do more harm than good, hurting rather than helping the 97 percent of aluminum industry jobs in mid-and-downstream production processes.”

U.S. imports of aluminum extrusions from China have already been found to injure the domestic industry, and unfair trade investigations on U.S. imports of aluminum foil and common alloy aluminum sheet from China are underway. Importantly, there are no existing unfair trade orders on imports of aluminum or aluminum products from any of the United States’ other trading partners.