New U.S. steel tariffs would have impacted €3.3 billion in Dutch exports last year

Dutch companies exported 3.3 billion euros worth of steel and aluminum products to the United States last year, products that will now fall under U.S. President Donald Trump’s import tariffs. The U.S. is the Netherlands second most important sales market for these products after Germany, Statistics Netherlands reported.

Trump’s government raised the import tariffs on steel and aluminum to 25 percent last month. The tariffs apply to all countries and they include, in addition to raw goods, almost 300 derivative products such as components or packaging materials. According to Statistics Netherlands, 8.5 percent of the total Dutch exports to the U.S. will be hit by these tariffs.

Half of the items exported to the U.S. were machines (33 percent) and manufactured goods (18 percent). The aluminum products had an export value of 2.3 billion euros. Dutch companies exported a total of 38.4 billion euros in goods to the United States last year. This makes the U.S. the fifth largest sales market for the Netherlands. After the United Kingdom, the U.S. is the second largest export destination outside of the European Union.

The import tariffs also include tariffs imposed by Trump during his first term as president in 2018. These were later suspended by his successor Joe Biden, but are now in effect again.