U.S. Commerce Recommends
Tariffs on Steel, Aluminum

The Trump administration is weighing broad-based tariffs and quotas to curb imports of steel and aluminum to protect national security. Officials stressed no final decisions have been made.

The recommendations include options, one of which is a global tariff of at least 24 percent on all steel imports from all countries. Another is a tariff of at least 53 percent on steel imports from a dozen countries. Under the latter option, the tariffs of 53 percent would be applied on steel from Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam.

The report from the Commerce Department also included, as an alternative, a quota on steel products from countries equal to 63 percent of the countries’ 2017 exports to the U.S.

While presenting a range of choices for how to proceed, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross made clear in a call with reporters that he felt some form of strong measures were necessary.

“Each of these reports comes to the conclusion that… imports threaten to impair our national security,” Ross said.

Ross said the policies were crafted to boost the percentage of U.S. capacity in use to 80 percent in both industries. Commerce estimates that the U.S. steel industry last year used 72.3 percent of its capacity, while the aluminum sector ran at 39 percent capacity.

Source: Wall Street Journal