The United States slowed, but without entering a recession. The economy cooled in the first two quarters, and the third-quarter data released by the BEA are unreliable because the offices that handled the work were closed for two months. On the other hand, the head of the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) was dismissed and replaced by someone close to the president's political group, who may repeat the pattern of distorting statistics to favour the regime, as seen in Latin American and African countries in previous years.

Since the 1990s and until 2025, the USA was the cornerstone of international free trade, framed by the establishment of the WTO (1995). From the 2000s, a rise in the twin deficits (fiscal and trade, see Graph 1) was observed, partly explained by the 2008 crisis, the growth of China, and the loss of competitiveness against it. The opening up of trade decentralised the US industry, due to the creation of global value chains, which relocated industries previously established in the USA to China, to become part of international manufacturing.

In 2025, the US government is threatening to impose tariffs on trade with Mexico, hoping to affect the Mexican economy and gain some additional advantages from such exchanges. As is well known, virtually all Mexican exports are destined for the United States, and a large part of them are the product of so-called value chains, in which Mexico is basically involved in the assembly and packaging of the final products. The reaction of the Mexican authorities and press suggests that something serious could indeed happen in the country.

On 29 April 2025, the Bureau of Economic Activity published that in the first quarter of the year, the US economy contracted by 0.3% as a result of the new tariffs. On the same date, the White House decided to relax tariff measures on the auto industry. The problem is that trade flows and global auto production are not overwhelmingly American. The advantages of the T-MEC and imports from Asia, both more than three decades old, cannot be reversed in a couple of years

In 2024, the US announced a general increase from 7% to 25% and 100% for electric vehicles (EVs). It was followed by Canada, which imposed 100% tariffs on EVs, and Mexico, which eliminated EV exemptions and imposed a 25% tariff on steel. Subsequently, on April 3, 2025, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on all countries, with a 10% base plus an additional country-specific percentage. This led to an escalation with China, for whom they have been set at over 100%. In this article, we will review the consequences of the trade war on the North American steel industry.