Steel Producers Want Imports Closely Monitored Post-232

The past year has shown that it is a false choice to say we cannot have both strong trade law enforcement and a growing economy. As a result of the President’s Section 232 action to defend our country’s economic and national security, the U.S. steel industry is in the midst of an ongoing recovery while U.S. economic growth is robust, inflation is low and the unemployment rate is at record lows.

Today’s announcement to remove Section 232 tariffs for steel and aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico and replace them with aggressive monitoring to prevent surges in steel and aluminum imports is a logical and necessary step to make trade progress in North America. Enforcement of trade laws is essential to ensuring fair trade. The Administration’s continued enforcement of U.S. trade laws and use of the full range of available remedies is essential to restoring and maintaining a level playing field for the American steel industry.

This agreement includes tools to prevent foreign steel producers from unfairly targeting and undermining the strength that steel mined, melted and made in the USA provides to our nation’s economy, manufacturing base and overall security. We will support the Administration as it implements the aggressive monitoring in this agreement and fight on behalf of our 17,500 American workers if the mechanism to prevent surges needs to be invoked and a tariff re-imposed.  

Nucor Corp. CEO and President John Ferriola commented:

Nucor believes that a commercially healthy American steel industry is vital to ensure our nation’s defense and economic security. The Section 232 steel tariffs were imposed to combat the flood of illegally subsidized and dumped steel imports coming into the U.S. over the past decade. Dumped steel imports threaten our national security by limiting the ability of our domestic steel industry to supply critical national defense needs. The 232 tariffs are vital for the long-term financial health of the steel industry and are working to keep dumped steel imports out of our market. One of the goals of the tariffs was to restore capacity utilization levels to above 80%, the minimum necessary for a financially healthy steel industry. While the industry is finally reaching that capacity utilization level, we need to maintain it to ensure that the benefits of the President’s 232 program are locked-in for the long term.

We believe it is important to maintain a comprehensive 232 remedy, without any further weakening of tariffs or quotas that are currently in place. However, in response to the news that the Section 232 tariffs are being lifted on Mexico and Canada, we are confident that the Administration will quickly and aggressively take action if imports from these countries surge. We are also confident that the Administration will continue to closely monitor import flows in order to prevent transshipment and circumvention through countries not subject to tariffs.

ArcelorMittal USA is also standing firm with the President on trade:

ArcelorMittal has fully supported the steel Section 232 actions to date. The recent resolution between the United States, Mexico and Canada should restore North American supply chains and hopefully paves the way forward for USMCA passage. We strongly urge these countries to remain vigilant to protect against import surges, circumvention, transshipments as well as unfairly traded steel imports.

AK Steel urged the administration to stand firm on circumvention:

We support the Administration and its strong and aggressive trade enforcement policies. The Section 232 program on steel is working and recovery has begun for the domestic steel industry.

As such, we urge the Administration to stay vigilant and quickly address any surges or circumvention schemes that may result because of the lifting of the tariffs on Canada and Mexico. This is critical to ensuring the effectiveness of the 232 program.

EVRAZ NA, which has steel mills in the U.S. and Canada, praised the decision to drop the steel tariffs on Canada and Mexico:

We are very pleased with the lifting of the 25% Section 232 tariff on steel from Canada. Canada and the United States are not only neighbors and friends but closely-linked economies with common markets and interconnected supply chains. The lifting of these tariffs and continued U.S.-Canadian free trade is good for our business, our steel workers, our valued customers on both sides of the border and the economies of both the United States and Canada.

We are thankful to officials in Washington and Ottawa for their efforts to resolve this tariff issue and for the work they are doing to promote continued free and fair trade between Canada and the United States, including for the final passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.