In the past weeks the Trump administration has taken a series of sanctions on aluminum sheet from China, which gives an impression that Trump is determined to keep China aluminum alloy out of America. Why is Trump so angry with China aluminum sheet industry? What made him take unusual measures that do harm to industries of both countries?

America aluminum sheet industry has been depressing since the 1980s, leading to closing up and unemployment in large scales. On the contrary, it’s a totally different case in China. Twenty years ago the annual productivity of the industry was only 1.8 million tons, taking up less than ten percent of global productivity. Ten years later the figure rocketed to 12 million tons and the global share rose to over thirty percent. Last year soared to 32.6 million tons, accounting for more than half of the world output. In February only China produced 2,99 million tons aluminum sheet, four times of America annual yield. Increasing market share of China sheet set off strongly depression of America aluminum sheet industry. Therefore, many Americans in the industry believed that it had been prosperity of their China counterparts that caused long term depression.

Large scale of unemployment in aluminum sheet industry also added to anxiety of the Trump administration. Unemployed groups, frustrated and upset, had high hopes for Trump. They expected him to make vigorous efforts to turn the situation and get them back to work. One year later, however, the industry was still under a difficult circumstance. What’s more, its productivity got even less. Complaints and anger of the whole industry was finally transferred to Trump and then to China. If we analyze the problem from a different point of view, it’s a positive turn for America to move an industry of high pollution and energy consumption abroad, because that demonstrates progress of its economic structure. However, it’s also understandable for unemployed people to be angry and frustrated in an unstable working state, because you may not even know where your next meal comes from.