OPINION:
For nearly half a century, the United States failed to build a single new primary aluminum smelter. Not one.
That drought is ending now in Inola, Oklahoma — and for one simple reason: President Trump’s tariffs work. Century Aluminum, the largest producer of primary aluminum in the United States, has announced a partnership with Emirates Global Aluminum to build the first new U.S. primary aluminum production plant since 1980.
Aluminum is not a luxury metal. It is a strategic material essential to modern defense and industrial power. Fighter jets, armored vehicles, naval vessels, satellites, missiles, drones, ammunition, electrical systems and military packaging all depend on secure supplies of primary aluminum.
Today, roughly 85% of America’s primary aluminum needs are met by imports. As the pandemic made painfully clear — and as China’s recent export controls on critical minerals have reinforced — that level of dependence leaves our nation one supply chain shock away from strategic vulnerability.
Mr. Trump understood this reality in 2018 when he imposed aluminum tariffs under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, a statute designed explicitly to protect national security from harmful foreign imports.
Those tariffs halted the free fall of domestic aluminum production and saved U.S. smelters that were days from closure. They sent a clear message: America would no longer offshore the metals that defend the republic.
Then Joseph R. Biden took office and dismantled the enforcement. His administration handed out exemptions like party favors. “Temporary” exclusions became permanent loopholes. Imports surged back into the U.S. market. Smelters shut down. Capacity eroded. Jobs disappeared.
Upon returning to office, Mr. Trump stopped the carnage. Elections matter. He raised aluminum tariffs to 50% and imposed a firm no-exclusions, no-exemptions policy. That move restored credibility to U.S. trade enforcement and sent an unmistakable signal: America would no longer tolerate death by loophole.
The new Trump tariff regime also closed a long-abused vulnerability by expanding enforcement of tariffs on derivative aluminum products — the downstream forms foreign producers used for years to evade primary metal tariffs. Covered products include aluminum sheet and plate, extrusions, wire, foil, can stock and other derivatives made directly from primary aluminum.
Foreign manufacturers can no longer buy subsidized aluminum from abroad for their products and hope to sail straight through U.S. customs. Mr. Trump ended that evasion game.
The new Trump rules also allow domestic producers to petition to add additional derivative products as market conditions change. That is dynamic enforcement, not static paperwork. It closes loopholes in real time and restores confidence that billions of dollars invested in American smelting capacity will not be undercut by foreign cheating.
Powered by the most advanced aluminum smelting technology ever installed in the United States, the Oklahoma facility will produce roughly 750,000 tons of primary aluminum per year — more than doubling current U.S. production. It will create about 1,000 permanent, high-wage manufacturing jobs and support another 4,000 construction jobs.
It will anchor a new aluminum-focused industrial hub in the American heartland, strengthening supply chains essential to economic and national security.
This project demolishes one of the central myths of the globalist era: that tariffs repel investment. In reality, smart tariffs attract the right investment — long-term, capital-intensive, job-creating investment that commits to America rather than exploits it.
That is not protectionism. That is Trump economic statecraft.
After decades of offshoring, foreign dumping, import dependence and strategic neglect, capital is moving back to the United States — not because Washington begged but because President Trump reset the rules of trade in America’s favor.
The Oklahoma smelter proves that when America defends its industries, investment follows. And when national security is taken seriously, prosperity follows.
• Peter Navarro is the White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing policy. www.peternavarro.com.
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