In a rare move, the U.S. has decided to lift duties on imports of two types of steel from 14 countries. The decision was taken after an independent U.S. panel ruled that that lifting duties will not harm American producers. With this move the U.S. regulator has knocked down 13 years old tariff and duty regime that hampered exports. Needless mentioning that it auto makers will be relieved with this news.
However, duties will not be lifted from corrosion-resistant steel imports from Germany and South Korea, ruled the U.S. International Trade Commission. On the other hand, the U.S. steelmakers are quite uncomfortable with the recent development as U.S. Steel Corp alleged that removing the tariffs would undermine the laws that meant to protect U.S. manufacturers. The company has expressed apprehensions saying that the domestic steel manufacturer would be affected by unfair imports and it may lead to layoffs and plant closing.
As a matter of fact, the U.S. manufacturers especially fear that the waving tariffs and duties will allow an unimaginable surge in excess Chinese steel may flood the U.S. market. However, their assumptions to a great extent are logical as China already flooding the world market with steel. Following this fact the domestic steel industry is in no good mood with the decision of waving duties and tariffs. With waiver, the U.S. market may become a dumping point for dumped and subsidized steel.
The decision has gone in the favor of car makers as they had already petitioned to have the tariffs lifted. They had contended that they have been made to pay $3 billion in additional cost since the year 2004 due to artificially high steel prices.
