By Trade Attorney Lewis Leibowitz At last week’s Tampa Steel Conference, I participated with three colleagues in a broad-ranging discussion on international trade issues affecting steel producers and users. We covered quite a few issues. One of these was related to so-called “overcapacity” in steel production around the world. As those who have read my […]
By Trade Attorney Lewis Leibowitz On Feb. 7, the United States and Japan announced their long-expected deal to replace most of the Section 232 tariffs on steel (25%) with a tariff rate quota or TRQ. The overall quota from Japan will be about 1.25 million metric tons per year, which is far smaller than imports […]
The U.S. has announced that a deal has been reached with Japan to ease Section 232 national security tariffs on steel imports from the key U.S. ally. The U.S. Commerce Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced the deal at around 5 pm Eastern Time on Monday, Feb. 7, as SMU had […]
The United States and Japan are expected to announce this afternoon a new deal on Section 232 regarding Japanese steel exports to the U.S., according to sources familiar with the matter. The new agreement will be a tariff rate quota, or TRQ, broadly similar to one negotiated between the U.S. and the EU last year. […]
By Trade Attorney Lewis Leibowitz The White House released a long-awaited decision on the future of special safeguard remedies for the solar industry on Friday. The decision may provide a glimpse into the trade philosophy of the Biden administration. First, a bit of background. The Trump-era tariffs began in January 2018 with decisions under the […]
The American Iron and Steel Institute sent a letter to House members Wednesday urging them to support the America COMPETES Act of 2022, which aims to enhance U.S. competitiveness to counter alleged nonmarket policies and practices by China. The legislation will strengthen the U.S. trade remedy laws by making more tools available to obtain timely […]
House passage of the America COMPETES Act this week proposes greater investment in American manufacturing and scientific research, as well as changes in trade policy to counter China’s growing economic influence around the world. But the measure must still overcome strong partisan opposition to reconcile it with the Senate version before it can become law. […]
By Trade Attorney Lewis Leibowitz We are hearing a lot about “managed trade” these days from economists, pundits and politicians. It’s time to step back and think about the pros and cons of that concept. First, we should define the term “managed trade.” Trade is usually conducted between private parties for their mutual gain. Governments […]
By Trade Attorney Lewis Leibowitz The U.S. and the UK recently announced the start of talks to eliminate or at least reduce the impact of Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum. Since 2018, the UK, first as part of the European Union and since the start of 2021 the UK alone, has been subject […]
The United States and the United Kingdom have officially started talks that could ease Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum from Great Britain. The discussions would also seek to end UK measures imposed against certain U.S. exports in retaliation for the 25% security tariffs on steel and 10% tariffs on aluminum, U.S. and UK […]
By Trade Attorney Lewis Leibowitz Tomorrow in Geneva, the U.S., Russia and Ukraine will start talks that could defuse, or not, the threat of war in Europe. Of course, a war has been going on between Russia and Ukraine for a while. In 2013, Viktor Yanukovich, then Ukraine’s president, rejected an agreement that would have […]
By Trade Attorney Lewis Leibowitz Last week, the Supreme Court issued two important preliminary rulings in cases that challenged the authority of the Executive Branch to require vaccinations for workers. In one, the Court ruled 6-3 that the Secretary of Labor (through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA) probably lacked the authority to […]
Looking for the latest data on the status of the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) with the European Union? SMU is here to help – even if the figures are not as user-friendly as we might like. Recall that the TRQ, which was signed into effect over the holidays by President Joe Biden, replaces blanket Section 232 […]
By Trade Attorney Lewis Leibowitz It’s a new year and a new start on many things. COVID does not appear to be one of them, but China relations may be. At the beginning of 2020, China and the U.S. agreed to settle some of their trade differences by inking a deal that reduced some U.S. […]
U.S. President Joe Biden has officially implemented a tariff-rate quota (TRQ) that will ease Section 232 restrictions on steel from the European Union. “I have determined that specified volumes of eligible steel … imports from the EU will no longer threaten to impair the national security,” Biden wrote in a presidential proclamation. The president did […]
A&T Stainless – a joint venture between Allegheny Technologies and China’s Tsingshan Group – has filed a request with the Commerce Department asking for a Section 232 tariff exclusion to import hot-band coils from Indonesia. If granted, A&T intends to restart the Midland, Pa., Direct Roll Anneal and Pickle (DRAP) line that was idled in July […]
The Commerce Department has declined to initiate a duty-circumvention case filed by Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) against Vietnamese coated flat-rolled steel made from Japanese substrate The decision came on the heels of opposition from big foreign mills, major steel importers and exporters, as well as lobbying groups in Japan and Vietnam. “Commerce finds that SDI did […]
By Trade Attorney Lewis Leibowitz This is the last trade and tariff update for 2021, definitely an eventful year. We have gone from a riot at the Capitol, to a surge in COVID, widespread vaccinations (but still not enough for “herd immunity,” whatever that is), more foreign policy crises in Taiwan, China, Ukraine, Afghanistan, historic […]
On Friday, the Labor Department announced the inflation rate for November. At 0.8%, it was a tick lower than the October inflation rate of 0.9%. But most observers paid more attention to the annual rate of inflation. At 6.8% compared to prices one year ago, the inflation rate was the highest it’s been since 1982. […]
Top U.S. and British trade negotiators appear to be nearing a deal to ease Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum from the United Kingdom. That’s according to recent statements from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and the Commerce Department. Case in point: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and UK Secretary of State […]
By Trade Attorney Lewis Leibowitz The global situation is changing under our feet (and noses). There is much to unpack, but the trend is clearly disturbing. First, Russia has massed between 100,000 and 200,000 troops on its border with Ukraine. No one is talking publicly about why that is happening, but the obvious concern is […]
The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) praised a new bipartisan bill designed to crack down on trade cheating and enhance the tools available to combat repeat offenders of U.S. trade remedy laws. The “Eliminating Global Market Distortions to Protect American Jobs Act of 2021” – also referred to as “The Level the Playing Field Act 2.0” – […]
A long-running legal fight over whether former President Donald Trump had legal authority to double Turkey’s Section 232 steel tariff to 50% might be headed to the Supreme Court. Attorneys representing a Turkish mill and consumers of Turkish steel last month filed a request – also known as a “writ of certiorari” – asking the […]
The U.S. Commerce Department has released product- and country-specific information on the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) for individual European Union member states. Among the biggest winners are Dutch hot rolled, Swedish cold rolled, and German plate. A complete list of quotas for individual steel products and countries is below. For steel products, click here. Our friends […]
Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) has filed a duty circumvention case against coated flat-rolled steel from Vietnam made from Japanese substrate. The Fort Wayne, Ind.-based steelmaker thinks that “minor alterations” such as coating represent an attempt to circumvent existing antidumping and countervailing duty orders on hot-rolled and cold-rolled coil from Japan. The U.S. Commerce Department has […]
At the direction of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the U.S. Commerce Department will continue to investigate oil country tubular goods (OCTG) imports from Argentina, Mexico and Russia that are allegedly being subsidized and dumped in the U.S. at below fair value. In a Nov. 19 vote, the USITC ruled there is reasonable indication that […]
South Korea wants the U.S. to start negotiations to ease Section 232 on its steel exports as soon as possible, according to local media reports. The latest call came during meetings this week between U.S. trade officials and their South Korean counterparts in Seoul. “We once again delivered our stance and concerns regarding the Section […]
SMU’s Community Chat webinar on Wednesday will feature veteran trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz. We’ll talk Section 232, the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) with the EU, and the changing global trade landscape. The free webinar begins at 11 a.m. ET (10 a.m. CT) on Wednesday, Nov 17. You can register right up to webinar time by clicking […]
By Trade Attorney Lewis Leibowitz The COP26 Glasgow conference on climate change just ended, yesterday, a day later than scheduled. The conference needed the extra day to hammer out a joint communiqué on what was agreed to and next steps. At the last moment, India threatened to torpedo the agreement because it contained strong language about phasing […]
By Trade Attorney Lewis Leibowitz Last Wednesday, it was my pleasure to join many readers on the latest Steel Market Update Community Chat. After a brief rundown of current issues affecting the steel sector and its customers, we had a lively round of questions, refereed by SMU Senior Editor Michael Cowden. We didn’t get to […]