Steel Business Owner Decries Trump’s 50% Tariffs on MSNBC: ‘I Feel Like My Voice Isn’t Heard’
The owner of a steel product manufacturing business told MSNBC on Wednesday that he felt like his “voice” wasn’t being “heard” after expressing concern over President Donald Trump’s new 50% steel tariffs.
Greg Colibert, owner of Steel Products Manufacturing in Salt Lake City, told MSNBC’s Katy Tur, “Back in February, my steel prices were about 49, 50 cent a pound. Right now, they’re at about 68 cents a pound, and what that equates to in the product that I manufacture could be 16-18 hundred dollars just in increased costs of the material, and my customers aren’t going to be very happy about that.”
He continued, “Our business is very competitive and, you know, a hundred dollars makes a big difference as to whether my customers are going to buy from me or someone else,” before adding that “most steel comes from Canada and Mexico.”
After Tur asked Colibert whether he had “any confidence that American steel manufacturing will get up to speed fast enough to supplement or completely replace the Canadian market,” he replied, “I don’t. We barely made it through the pandemic, and those steel prices were almost a dollar a pound and there was so many shortage issues. I could not get material.”
“You know, being so ingrained in a red state, I feel like my voice isn’t heard,” Colibert concluded. “I didn’t vote for the current administration and I just don’t think my representatives grasp the full impact of what these tariffs do to steel manufacturers.”
President Trump announced a 25% rise in steel import tariffs last week as part of an effort to revitalize the American steel industry.
“It is my great honor to raise the Tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25% to 50%, effective Wednesday, June 4th,” he wrote in a Truth Social post. “Our steel and aluminum industries are coming back like never before. This will be yet another BIG jolt of great news for our wonderful steel and aluminum workers. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Watch above via MSNBC.
