The Supreme Court has declined to hear a case about whether former President Donald Trump had legal authority to double Turkey’s Section 232 steel tariff to 50% The high court did so by denying “certiorari” on Monday, March 28, in the matter of TransPacific Steel LLC et al v. United States et al. The move […]
Too much went on last week to limit this week’s column to a single issue. The Ukraine war touches everything these days, including almost all recent developments on the trade front. It was a week that, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, was “not entirely uneventful.” First, the NATO summit meeting took on issues that have divided Europe […]
The U.S.-UK agreement to ease Section 232 tariffs was lauded by some industry groups and union representatives for promoting fair trade. But others questioned whether certain unusual provisions in the deal might cause trouble. And still others said the deal didn’t do enough to remove tariffs from a close U.S. ally. Recall that on Tuesday the United States […]
The U.S. does not have any additional Section 232 negotiations in the pipeline with South Korea, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Reuters. And domestic steel industry lobbying groups said that talks weren’t happening with Brazil or Argentina either, the other countries subject to a Section 232 quota rather than a 25% tariff. The industry execs […]
The United States and the United Kingdom have agreed to a deal to ease Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum. The contours of the agreement match what Steel Market Update reported earlier in the day on Tuesday, March 22. “Today’s historic deal is a testament to that ambitious goal and will benefit America’s steel […]
The Commerce Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) are expected to announce an agreement with the United Kingdom to ease Section 232 tariffs on its steel exports, according to sources familiar with the matter. The deal, slated to go into effect on June 1, is expected to be announced at approximately […]
Mexico has extended for another five years its existing countervailing duties against imports of Russian, Romanian and Ukrainian steel plate. The trade policy has been in effect since 2005; the latest determination is retroactive to Sept. 22, 2020. Following a filing from domestic producer Altos Horns de Mexico (AHMSA), the Mexican secretariat’s determination “established sufficient […]
By Trade Attorney Lewis Leibowitz On Feb. 10, the Bureau of Industry and Security of the Commerce Department published a request for public comments concerning steel and aluminum exclusions under the Section 232 tariffs and quotas. Comments are due in about a week (March 28). The request for public comments did not originate from the […]
By Trade Attorney Lewis Leibowitz (Editor’s note: The following views are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Steel Market Update.) On Friday, President Biden announced that the United States would end “Most Favored Nation” status, termed “PNTR” in the United States, for Russia, a member of the World Trade […]
By Trade Attorney Lewis Leibowitz (Editor’s note: The following views are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Steel Market Update.) A bit over a week into the new world order (i.e., the Russian invasion of Ukraine) and things are proceeding, but slowly. We have all been following the conflict—but […]
By Trade Attorney Lewis Leibowitz Albert Einstein is reputed to have said that time is the “fourth dimension” because you cannot tell where you are except by knowing “when” you are. The onset of war in Europe is “when” we are right now. As I write, there is a battle for control of Kyiv. Because […]
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. […]