Your Washer Has $50 of Steel. The Tariff Is $500.
On April 6, Trump's Section 232 proclamation flipped one rule: tariffs on steel, aluminum, and copper derivatives now apply to the full customs value of the product, not just the metal content. A $2,000 imported washer with $50 of steel that paid $25 in duty now pays $500. Buried in Annex IV is a 15-percent-by-weight cliff that's about to drive the strangest product redesign arms race since Smoot-Hawley.