Twenty-three House lawmakers signed a letter this week to President Donald Trump urging him to exempt tinplate steel and aluminum for food packaging in any import restrictions initiated to the administration’s ongoing Section 232 national security reviews of steel and aluminum imports, the office of Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., announced. “The domestic canned food supply chain and flexible packaging industry generates more than $100 billion in total economic activity in the U.S. and employs tens of thousands of American workers,” Bacon said in a statement. “This industry provides some of the safest, most affordable food available to consumers today. We will continue to keep pressing for what we believe is right for America and our constituents.” Tinplate steel composes about 60 percent of the cost of a can, meaning a tariff even as low as 5 percent would raise the cost of goods by 4.2 cents each, “inevitably” passing along higher expenses to consumers, the announcement says.
United Steelworkers (USW) in a statement urged the Trump administration to hurry up in taking Section 232 action against steel imports, after “news reports” indicated that the executive branch is delaying the conclusion of its ongoing investigation. "Delay is devastating,” USW International President Leo Gerard said in a statement. “Since the President announced an investigation in April, attacks on the U.S. steel sector have skyrocketed, with imports up 18%. Trading partners have targeted the U.S. market for fear that the United States will finally stand up for its producers and workers and protect our national security.” Gerard said enough “time, attention, and investigation” have passed for the administration to “know what needs to be done.” Started in April, the Commerce Department-led investigation could result in tariffs and/or quotas if it finds steel imports threaten national security.
The July 19 U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue ended with no bilateral joint statement and canceled press conferences by both countries, a Commerce Department spokesman confirmed. Such bilateral dialogues usually produce a joint statement of commitments by both countries. The last iteration of U.S.-China economic dialogues, dubbed the U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue, under the Obama administration in 2016 ended in a joint fact sheet stating China’s agreement not to initiate new efforts to boost steel capacity (see 1606080041).
Nine domestic industry groups urged Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on July 18 to persevere with the Trump administration’s Section 232 investigations on steel and aluminum, despite “vague speculation” about trade retaliation. “Global trade has been nonreciprocal, in part, because past administrations have wrongly viewed enforcement of trade rules as protectionism even as other countries made full use of those rules,” the groups said in a July 18 letter (here). The 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade allows countries to protect national security, and the World Trade Organization system prevents any “uncontrollable trade retaliation” for using the provision. There have been no such retaliatory countermeasures leveled against nations that assess trade measures based on national security, the groups wrote.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for July 10-14 in case they were missed.
President Donald Trump this week said he might level tariffs and quotas on steel imports, apparently referring to the ongoing Commerce Department-led Section 232 investigation on imports of the metal, according to a White House transcript of remarks to reporters aboard Air Force One released July 13. Trump said “there are two ways” to stop dumped steel imports from China and elsewhere. “Maybe I’ll do both,” he said. “They're dumping steel. Not only China, but others. We're like a dumping ground, OK? They're dumping steel and destroying our steel industry; they've been doing it for decades, and I'm stopping it. It'll stop.” Trump said he has been “going a little bit easier” on any trade-related measures against China “because I’d like to have their help.”
Fifteen former chairpersons of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers sent a letter (here) to President Donald Trump on July 12 urging his administration not to impose tariffs on steel pursuant to the ongoing Commerce Department-led Section 232 investigation into steel imports. “Among us are Republicans and Democrats alike, and we have disagreements on a number of policy issues,” they said. “But on some policies there is near universal agreement. One such issue is the harm of imposing tariffs on steel imports.” The former officials cited “media reports” indicating Trump is considering using his Section 232 authority to impose tariffs on steel because of a “putative threat to national security.” Top source steel countries are allies, including Canada, Mexico, South Korea and Brazil, and higher tariffs would likely harm U.S. relations with “these friendly nations,” after Canadian, United Kingdom, EU, German and Dutch officials have already expressed concerns about possible results of the probe, they said.
The American Association of Exporters and Importers (AAEI) and the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) differed on whether import restraints on primary aluminum should be on the table for the Trump administration’s ongoing review of the national security impacts of aluminum imports. The Commerce Department posted comments on the administration's ongoing Section 232 investigation into aluminum imports last week (here). NFTC said that measures limiting importation of primary aluminum would hurt U.S. jobs supported by the aluminum industry and reduce exports of can sheet to Canada and Mexico, assuming primary aluminum costs rise (here).
Congressional Steel Caucus leaders Tim Murphy, R-Pa., and Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., led a letter to President Donald Trump calling for broad and lengthy application of any Section 232 remedies for the steel industry, Murphy’s office announced June 28 (here). Any remedy should also avoid exceptions that could be exploited by foreign producer dumping or duty circumvention, the lawmakers wrote. “The domestic steel industry’s ability to provide material to the military, electrical steel for the grid or drilling equipment for the energy industry may be fatally undermined if foreign countries and producers are allowed to destroy other lines of business that are critical to American steel producers’ economic viability,” Reps. Murphy and Visclosky said. “Taking away one or two legs of a chair makes the entire platform unusable. A remedy must encompass the entirety of the American steel industry in order to safeguard our national security.” The letter was also sent to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Defense Secretary James Mattis. Ross has a self-imposed deadline of June 30 to announce any remedial actions pursuant to his department's ongoing national security investigation into steel imports.
Lawmakers urged U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to streamline customs procedures in the upcoming NAFTA renegotiation during a June 22 hearing at which House Republicans also joined their Democratic colleagues in calling for discretion in the Trump administration’s ongoing Section 232 metals investigations. During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Trump administration trade policy, Lighthizer said trade facilitation would be part of the negotiations. While acknowledging the possibility for "technical" disagreements on customs provisions, he said he “can’t imagine” that NAFTA parties would differ in "direction” on customs talks. Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, in his opening statement called for updates to NAFTA to reflect “modern realities” of customs barriers, digital commerce, intellectual property and state-owned enterprises, among other areas.