Americans will increasingly be buying pantry staples like canned corn and green beans that say in small print on the back of the can, “Product of China” or another foreign country. These foreign canned foods are continuing to infiltrate American grocery stores and take market share away from U.S. food producers because tariffs meant to put America First are having the perverse result of significantly advantaging imported canned food.
The marketplace distortion comes from the current tariff structure. The Trump Administration in June 2025 increased from 25% to 50% the Section 232 tariff on steel, including tinplate steel, the niche product used to make steel food cans. This increase added tens of millions of dollars per month in fees that the U.S. steel food can value chain absorbs, often ultimately falling mostly to the consumer. In sharp contrast, importers of filled food cans pay no Section 232 tariff.
The Trump Administration knows more finished products not paying the Section 232 tariff is a loophole it should guard against. The Administration smartly started in May 2025 a process to apply Section 232 tariffs to more finished products, what it called derivatives, so companies do not import more finished products, like food cans, to keep using foreign metal without paying the tariff.
While empty food cans are on the derivatives list, the Trump Administration again recently declined to add any filled food containers to the derivatives list. Among its proposed additions are steel containers filled with oxygen and propane but not food.
The Trump Administration rightfully proclaims farm security is national security and America First, but it is failing to honor those principles with this continued choice to not apply the same kind of high tariffs on foreign canned food as it does the U.S. steel food can value chain.
The result is canned food imports have increased. Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI), which represents U.S. metal can manufacturers and their suppliers, estimates that nearly 6 billion food cans were imported in 2025. That is an 8% increase just from 2024. Considering that in 2025 U.S. food can manufacturers produced and shipped roughly 24 billion food cans, these foreign food cans are a significant and increasing portion of the U.S. canned food market.
There are many news stories about the harm this does to U.S. food producers. Earlier this year, Del Monte closed its cannery in Modesto, CA, in part due to foreign competition. The closure meant the loss of 600 full-time and 800-900 seasonal jobs, as well as California peach farmers destroying 420,000 trees in their orchards. Another example is Red Gold, a fourth-generation, U.S.-family-owned business, seeing big institutional customers increasingly turn to foreign canned tomatoes from Egypt and other countries.
Losing American canneries threatens U.S. food security and many domestic manufacturing jobs. About 78,000 people work in U.S. canneries, almost as many as in all U.S. steel mills. There are also the jobs in U.S. steel can manufacturing, which directly supports over 7,000 jobs in 23 states.
The Trump Administration can and should act now to deliver a win on food security and to U.S. farmers and manufacturers. It’s the right thing to do for the country and also would respond to midterm voters who will soon head to the polls. A RealClear poll from late last year found a whopping 98% of Trump voters believe it’s important that the U.S. grows and produces its own food, including canned foods, rather than relying on foreign imports.
The quickest and easiest action that the Trump Administration can take to remedy this problem is for the Department of Commerce to use its existing authority under the April 2, 2026 Proclamation to add a targeted list of canned foods to the Section 232 derivatives list at a 50% tariff. It can start with canned foods that Americans both produce and import in significant amounts—corn, green beans, tomatoes, etc.
This action has broad support. More than 30 U.S. food producers and can manufacturers have recently signed a letter encouraging the addition of these targeted canned foods to the derivatives list. Groups like Coalition for Prosperous America have also called for using the derivatives authority to end the tariff advantage for foreign canned goods.
Another option is for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to add tariffs on imported canned foods via the Section 301 excess capacity tariffs that it will soon propose.
The Trump Administration can also support bills on Capitol Hill that would help address the issue. One such bill it should work to pass is the bipartisan American CANS Act (HR 914), which would require that imported filled food cans more prominently label the country of origin, so American families have more ready access to this information to inform their buying choices.
It should also endorse Buy American provisions, such as those in the House and Senate Farm Bills that apply to school lunch programs. These provisions help ensure American tax dollars prioritize the purchase of American canned foods.
The Trump Administration has the right principles and goals, and it has equipped itself with the tools to address the influx of foreign-filled food cans. Now it just needs to honor those aims and wield these tools for the benefit of American farmers, food producers, and consumers.
The result will be strengthened American farming and manufacturing, as well as satisfied voters that want to buy American-made goods.
