Red Hot Row Rages Over Steel Tarifs
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Manufacturing News, Source : The Manufacturer US
Published : 25 Mar 2002 16:40
The staple food of manufacturing is at the center of an escalating international row following President Bush's move to put up steel barriers between the US and much of the free trade world.
As The Manufacturer went to print, the hard-pressed American steel industry hailed Bush's decision to impose product-specific tariffs of between 8% and 30% on imported steel. Meanwhile, much of the rest of the steel-making world scorned the decision. From its headquarters in Pennsylvania, Bethlehem Steel Corporation chairman and CEO Robert "Steve" Miller Jr. said the president had "stood up for steel." He thanked "the entire Bush administration for realizing the critical role a strong domestic steel industry can and will play as a basic building block of both our national economy and our national security."
But in Europe, fears were growing that the tariffs would mean millions of tons of steel usually imported to the US would be dumped on the doorsteps of country's like Britain, which has already endured the pain of job losses and modernization to become one of the world's most efficient producers. Commentators there accused the US of abandoning its free trade principles for political ends in order to gain favor in states critical to Bush's re-election.
The US steel industry is known to be struggling against $10 billion of what it calls "legacy costs" arising from what some see as overgenerous workers' pension schemes. However, Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, interviewed for The Manufacturer by Jill Rose this month (see page 14) put the cause of the crisis down to foreign government intervention and subsidies. "We've got to ensure our workers and our businesses that there's going to be a level playing field," he told her.
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