Bush Ends Steel Tariffs

Jason Sandefur

Facing billions of dollars in retaliatory tariffs from the European Union and Japan, President Bush announced an end to steel tariffs. The EU responded by immediately lifting its tariff warning that had threatened to plunge the two continents into a major transatlantic trade dispute.
The Bush tariffs, scheduled to remain in effect until 2005, were ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization in November.
To soften the blow, the White House will continue an early-detection monitoring program to guard against a sudden flood of foreign steel coming into the country. The reporting program requires steel importers to apply for import licenses, providing quicker detection of possible import surges than waiting for Customs Service data when the steel arrives at U.S. ports. The administration also pledged to continue pursuing global negotiations aimed at reducing subsidies.

Steelmakers responded with disappointment to the announcement.
�While we are deeply disappointed in the President’s decision to abandon the tariffs, we thank the Administration for their firm commitment to enforce U.S. trade law and we are encouraged by the President’s promise to work with Congress to achieve a long-term solution to illegal dumping and other unfair trade practices that necessitated the 201 in the first place,” stated Nucor Corp. CEO Dan DiMicco.

Steelworkers, however, were less constrained in their disapproval.
“Our union will now work very hard to make sure George W. Bush joins the ranks of the unemployed next year,” stated Mark Glyptis, president of the Independent Steelworkers Union at bankrupt Weirton Steel Corp. in West Virginia.

Brink Lindsey, a trade expert at the Cato Institute, declared Bush�s promises little more than a fig leaf for the domestic industry.
“The existence or nonexistence of an import monitoring system is not going to make that much difference,” Lindsey noted. “And the pledge on more international talks is lip service as well. The talks haven’t gone very far and they are not likely to go very far.” �2003 FastenerNews.com