U.S. House committee calls for steel production protections

The U.S. House Ways & Means Committee recently held a hearing addressing trade and urged the Biden administration to defend domestic steel production against foreign steel imports.

Mexican steel imports increased 73 percent between 2017 and 2022, according to industry statistics. Mexico also has imposed steel and aluminum tariffs to prevent transshipment into the U.S. market.

During the Trump Administration, the Mexican government agreed to limit its imports so it would be exempt from the Section 232 steel tariff program.

Mexico has allowed steel and manufactured products from China and elsewhere to be routed through Mexico into the United States.

Under the 2019 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the United States can re-impose Section 232 tariffs if Mexican imports surge.

The U.S. Trade Representative has utilized USMCA’s labor rapid-response mechanism 22 times to address labor concerns at facilities in Mexico. It also has eliminated Trump Administration enforcement actions related to several countries’ discriminatory digital services taxes.

“For the last year, the Biden Administration had been picking winners and losers in the steel industry – and shut down this facility – which would be bad for our national security, our economic security, and our steelworkers in Western Pennsylvania,” U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), Ways & Means Subcommittee on Tax chairman, said. “Our trade agenda must deter unfair trade practices by foreign nations and ensure resilience and strength in the American economy.”

Kelly urged the Biden Administration to deter other nations’ unfair trade practices and to utilize fair trade policies to protect domestic Grain Oriented Electrical Steel (GOES) production.

The last domestic GOES producer in the nation is located in Butler at Cleveland-Cliffs Butler Works.