After a visit at the White House, House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, told reporters at the Capitol that he told the president that the next step after tax reform is expanding export opportunities. "NAFTA was a good part of our discussions," he said Feb. 26. "I think there's potential major wins for President [Donald] Trump in NAFTA." Brady pointed to improvements in customs, digital trade, intellectual property and agriculture.
The Department of Defense agrees with a Section 232 investigation that concludes that systematic unfair trade practices that erode the industrial base pose a risk to national security. However, Defense Secretary James Mattis' position is that any tariffs or quotas aimed at shoring up the domestic steel and aluminum industries may have "negative impact on our key allies." Mattis, in an undated memo released by the Commerce Department on Feb. 22, wrote that there is no immediate problem with sourcing steel and aluminum for military uses, since military consumption is just 3 percent of U.S. production. The Commerce Department's report, which became public last week (see 1802160020), noted that as well.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Feb. 12-16 in case they were missed.
South Korea and China are reportedly signaling plans to challenge potential new tariffs or quotas on foreign steel and aluminum. Kang Sung-cheon, deputy minister of trade, told the local press that South Korea should not be on the list of 12 countries targeted for high U.S. tariffs, just because it imports steel from China. "Steel products imported from China are mostly used to satisfy domestic demand in the construction and shipbuilding sectors, while Korean steel shipped to the U.S. is (made up of) high-value added products for the automobile and energy industries," Kang said.
Worldwide tariffs on steel and aluminum or worldwide quotas on imports of those metals are two of the Commerce Department’s three recommendations on how to respond to plant closures and job losses in the domestic steel and aluminum industries. A flood of steel and aluminum, dumped at prices that undermine U.S. producers, is threatening the industrial base, and therefore national security, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told the White House in January. On Feb. 16, he shared the details of those reports with reporters on a conference call, and posted redacted versions of both reports on the department’s website.
President Donald Trump told 15 congressional Republicans and four Democrats visiting the White House Feb. 13 that he's considering quotas or tariffs to protect domestic steel and aluminum. Producers have been decimated by dumping from China and other countries, he said. He said he'd discussed "in great detail" on the campaign trail how U.S. steel and aluminum industries have been taken advantage of by other countries.
The U.S. "would consider negotiating" with the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement countries "either individually, or perhaps as a group, if it is in the interests of all," President Donald Trump said in a Jan. 26 speech. One of Trump's first actions as president was to withdraw the U.S. from the TPP (see 1701230041) and the remaining member countries recently reached a new deal (see 1801230059). Trump mentioned the idea while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Jan. 19 formally submitted to President Donald Trump the results of the department's Section 232 investigation on the national security effects of imports of wrought and unwrought aluminum, Commerce said in a Jan. 22 news release. Submission of the report starts a 90-day clock for Trump to decide whether to impose any import restrictions under the investigation, Commerce said. The recommendations, along with those submitted Jan. 11 in an ongoing Section 232 investigation on steel (see 1801120023), include a “wide range of options” from measures “specifically targeting ‘bad actors’” in the steel and aluminum industries to broader tariffs on steel and aluminum, according to a report from CNBC.
Ur-Energy USA and Energy Fuels Resources recently filed a joint request for a Section 232 investigation on the national security effects of uranium imports. The petition says imports of uranium, particularly from Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, imperil the viability of the U.S. domestic uranium mining industry and its ability to supply uranium for nuclear weapons and reactors aboard naval vessels. The two mining companies request a quota that would reserve 25 percent of the U.S. market for domestically mined uranium, as well as a Buy America policy for U.S. government agencies that use uranium.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Jan. 11 “formally submitted” the results of its Section 232 investigation on the national security effects of steel imports to President Donald Trump, Commerce said in a press release. The Trump administration now has 90 days to decide on any potential action based on the investigation’s findings, the agency said. After that decision is announced, Commerce will publish a summary of the report in the Federal Register and release a public version of the report, it said.