Tariff Times Daily: Lockheed Martin Breaks Ground on New Missile Plant in Alabama
Tariffs keep delivering as all eyes are on the Texas runoff primary.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The main goal of the American System, and of Protection, is the defense of American workers and industry. Protection and national security are thus hand in hand, and mutually reinforcing. Without national security, you cannot protect your people or your factories, nor the sovereignty needed to guarantee their future. But without industrial protection, demonstrated best by the tariff, you cannot adequately provide for your national security. This fundamental reality is part of why Washington is finally realizing what Americans across the nation have known from their on the ground experience; globalism did not work. Tariffs are the shield that protect the American people, our jobs, and our industry, from foreign adversaries such as the Chinese Communist Party. National Security is not complete without the protection of workers and industry provided by the tariff. Thus the story breaking today, of Lockheed Martin breaking ground on a new missile plant in Alabama, is precisely the kind of defense-industrial capacity that procurement and tariff policy are meant to rebuild at home. On top of this massive win, all eyes are on Texas, as The Tariff Times covered today Senator John Cornyn’s abysmal record on tariffs, and we all await the outcome of his runoff primary against Trump endorsed candidate Ken Paxton. If today goes anything like Trumps success in Indiana and last week in Kentucky, Paxton will likely win, and one of the biggest obstacles to a protectionist agenda will be eliminated. Here’s to more winning!
TODAY’S STORIES
Lockheed Martin Breaks Ground on New Missile Plant in Alabama
Lockheed Martin began construction on a new munitions facility in Alabama that will expand production of THAAD missile-defense interceptors, a segment of the defense industrial base that has run up against capacity limits for years. Rebuilding the domestic capacity to produce critical munitions is precisely the result that sustained industrial policy and defense procurement are designed to deliver, turning appropriations into physical plant and skilled work on American soil. Do not mistake this development as having no commercial benefit. National Security industrialization proceeds downstream demand for commercial and non-security related products, and produces skills in workers and managers that lead to future business and innovation opportunities. Thus national security investment that produces industrialization is a positive development, both in terms of keeping the United States safe, while also setting a foundation for quality jobs and industrial output for the future.
Trump Backs Primary Challenge to Senate Finance Trade Chairman Cornyn
President Trump’s support for a primary challenger to Senate Finance international trade chairman John Cornyn follows the recent primary defeats of tariff critic Rep. Thomas Massie and Finance member Bill Cassidy, signaling a continued realignment of the congressional GOP around the administration’s trade agenda. For the durability of protectionist policy, a Republican trade bench that reflects the American System direction matters as much as any single tariff action, since legislative majorities will shape what future administrations inherit. The Tariff Times documents John Cornyn’s longstanding commitment against Protection for American workers and industry, and his explicit endorsement of a world with “zero tariffs.”
Navarro Defends Pentagon Loan Offer to Domestic Rare Earth Refiner
A proposed Defense Department loan to rare earth refiner ReElement, part of a $1.4 billion partnership with magnet maker Vulcan Elements to scale domestic rare earth magnet production, has drawn internal scrutiny, with trade adviser Peter Navarro publicly defending the offer. The episode shows how much work remains to stand up a domestic rare earth supply chain capable of substituting for Chinese refining and magnet output, the chokepoint that has constrained American manufacturers and defense suppliers alike.
U.S. Streaming Firms Push Back on Canada’s Tripled Content-Spending Rule
Canada’s broadcast regulator, the CRTC, will require streaming services including Netflix, Amazon, Apple, and Disney to direct 15 percent of their Canadian revenue to local content, a sharp increase that U.S. industry groups and Washington have flagged as a trade concern. Other nations are within their rights to develop domestic industries, and content rules are a familiar tool; the question for U.S. negotiators is whether the measure operates as legitimate cultural policy or as a discriminatory barrier that warrants response under existing commitments.
Nebius Breaks Ground on Gigawatt-Scale AI Factory in Missouri
Construction is underway on a gigawatt-scale artificial intelligence facility in Independence, Missouri, one of a wave of large compute centers now being built across the American interior. Domestic AI infrastructure is becoming a pillar of the home market Henry Clay described, drawing capital investment, construction employment, and demand for American-made power equipment and grid components into communities that need them.
FEDERAL REGISTER WATCH
Notice (Amended Preliminary Determination): Commerce amended its preliminary less-than-fair-value finding on crystalline silicon solar cells from Laos to correct ministerial errors. Solar-cell dumping cases remain a front line in the effort to keep imported product from undercutting the domestic solar manufacturing that recent investment has aimed to build. Read notice
Notice (Preliminary CVD Review): Commerce preliminarily found countervailable subsidies for producers of corrosion inhibitors from China for 2024. Confirming subsidy margins keeps duties in place on a Chinese chemical input and signals that administrative reviews continue to police state-subsidized imports. Read notice
Notice (Court Decision / Amended Order): Commerce reports that the Court of International Trade sustained its remand determination on paper shopping bags from Colombia, and Commerce amended the antidumping order accordingly. The decision affirms the agency’s dumping methodology and preserves relief for domestic bag producers. Read notice
Notice (Expedited Sunset Review): The ITC scheduled an expedited five-year review of the antidumping order on R-32 refrigerant from China. Sunset reviews determine whether lifting an existing order would let injurious dumping resume, and expedited handling generally points toward continuation. Read notice
ON THE DOCKET
Sunset-review week: four ITC five-year reviews covering steel and pigment imports all close June 1, while Customs has opened its annual distribution of collected antidumping and countervailing duties to injured domestic producers.
Jun 01 (closes in 6 days) — ITC: Five-year sunset reviews on steel nails (Malaysia, Oman, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam), steel grating (China), welded line pipe (South Korea, Turkey), and carbazole violet pigment 23 (China, India). These reviews decide whether long-standing antidumping and countervailing orders stay in force; domestic producers and their associations must file by the deadline to preserve the duties that shield them from a return of dumped imports. Steel nails | Steel grating | Welded line pipe | Carbazole violet 23
Jul 27 (new, closes in 62 days) — CBP / DHS: Distribution of Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset for FY2026. Domestic producers eligible under the Byrd Amendment must file certifications to receive a share of collected antidumping and countervailing duties, turning enforcement into direct support for the injured industry. Read notice
ON THE HILL
HEARINGS & MARKUPS
No House Ways and Means or Senate Finance trade hearings or markups appear on the 14-day calendar.
BILLS TO WATCH
HR 2715: Destruction of Hazardous Imports Act. The bill gives authorities firmer footing to destroy dangerous noncompliant imports rather than re-export them, advancing import-safety enforcement that protects consumers and compliant domestic producers alike. Ordered reported by the full Ways and Means Committee, 43 to 0, on May 21, an advance from the subcommittee action reported earlier this month. View bill
HR 8959: Semiconductor Superiority Act. Aimed at strengthening domestic semiconductor competitiveness, the measure fits squarely with the reshoring of chip production that tariff and CHIPS policy have prioritized. Referred to Ways and Means on May 21. View bill
S 1473: Stop Stealing our Chips Act. Targets theft and diversion of U.S. semiconductor technology, a defensive complement to domestic chip investment. Held at the desk on May 21, positioning it for floor consideration. View bill
S 4611: Aligning the Job Corps with the defense industrial base. The bill would orient federal workforce training toward defense manufacturing needs, addressing the skilled-labor constraint that limits how quickly new plants can come online. Referred to the HELP Committee on May 20. View bill
TODAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY
On May 26, 1896, Charles Dow published the first Dow Jones Industrial Average, a basket of twelve industrial companies that became the enduring barometer of the nation’s manufacturing economy.