What if Trump does roll back steel and aluminum tariffs?
Marketplace
Marketplace
4.6 • 8.5K Ratings
🗓️ 16 February 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The White House may roll back steel and aluminum tariffs, according to the Financial Times. Sure, President Donald Trump has announced or enacted tariffs just to reverse course many times. But the difference is steel and aluminum are crucial materials in the production of, well, just about everything. In this episode: How might such a rollback affect your wallet? Plus, market conditions make for a stronger manufacturing sector in 2026, restaurants expand menu offerings that cater to GLP-1 users, and we explain how the Fed actually changes interest rates.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Holiday week or not, the economy doesn't stop, and neither does the flow of economic data. |
| 0:07.1 | From American Public Media, this is Marketplace. |
| 0:14.9 | In New York, I'm Kristen Schwab in for Kyrisdal. It's Monday, February 16th. Good to be here with you. |
| 0:24.0 | It's just one of those weeks that can only be described as a data dump. We're going to get the latest GDP figures on Friday and a bunch of numbers about housing, consumer spending, and inflation along the way. Let's take it one day at a time, though. |
| 0:39.8 | Tomorrow comes manufacturing data from the Federal Reserve and some of its regional banks. |
| 0:45.7 | Early indications suggest manufacturing activity has been picking up so far in 2026. |
| 0:51.9 | Marketplace's Justin Ho looks into whether that could continue and whether that could |
| 0:55.9 | translate into more manufacturing employment. Last year wasn't exactly a stable one for the |
| 1:02.0 | manufacturing sector, thanks to tariffs, high interest rates, and a shaky global economy. But this |
| 1:07.8 | year, manufacturers have a few things working for them, says Scott Paul, |
| 1:11.2 | president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. The tax environment is favorable. If interest |
| 1:17.4 | rates at least stabilize, there'll be some relief for consumers and for businesses. |
| 1:22.5 | Paul says lower interest rates might spur more demand for appliances, vehicles, and other |
| 1:27.3 | manufactured goods. Plus, the big wave of AI investment will spur more demand for appliances, vehicles, and other manufactured goods. |
| 1:28.7 | Plus, the big wave of AI investment will push up demand for the equipment that goes into data |
| 1:33.2 | centers. So I think there's a lot of potential areas for growth that could aid in the demand |
| 1:39.9 | for manufacturing as well. Manufacturers surveyed by the Institute for Supply Management last month |
| 1:44.9 | said new orders picked up for the first time since August. But the same report found that employment |
| 1:49.7 | shrank at the same time. Even if new orders come back, it's going to be a bit before folks start |
| 1:56.8 | being comfortable making permanent decisions like hiring people. Susan Spence is chair of ISM's Manufacturing Business Survey Committee. |
| 2:04.5 | She says the big factor causing manufacturers to hold off is tariff uncertainty. |
| 2:09.0 | That's kind of frozen action on folks to say we don't know where the next one's coming from. |
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