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Article Excerpt
The International Trade Commission held hearings in June to assess the impact of the Section 201 steel tariffs on American steel consuming companies. Arguments both for and against the tariffs were abundant. Testimony from the hearings, along with related questionnaire data, forms the basis for the ITC's final report, due Sept. 19 to President Bush. The president can choose to keep the tariffs in place until March 2005, amend them or repeal them altogether.
Metal Center News asked steel industry observers to speculate on which choice the president might make, and to discuss some of the factors that could affect his decision as he attempts to balance the cost and benefits of the tariff program.
"You have to ensure that there is effective competition in all parts of the domestic industry," say consultant Charles Blum, president of International Advisory Services Group Ltd., a Washington, D.C.-based firm that advises U.S. and foreign clients o trade issues.
He believes there are too many outcomes pending to gauge what the president will do. One example is the U.S. government's appeal, filed Aug. 11, of the World Trade Organization's ruling against the tariff.
"My guess is the decision may be taken less for grand policy reasons than for shorter term political reasons," Blum says. "If we have a roaring [economic] recovery, that's one set of problems. If you have a very slow recovery, that's another."
Another problem is that it's been impossible even for experts to isolate the effects of tariffs from all the other forces on the market, including product exclusions, import levels, currency exchange rates, end-user demand and producer consolidation.
"A fair amount of restructuring is still pending," Blum says, Apart from the integration of Bethlehem and Acme into International Steel Group and National Steel into U.S. Steel, Rouge is courting buyers, and some work must...
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