PERSPECTIVE: Metals Service Center Calls for Steel Tariffs, Continuing China’s ‘Non-Market’ Status
6/2/2016 12:03:00 PM
FEATURE
PERSPECTIVE: Metals Service Center Calls for Steel Tariffs, Continuing China’s ‘Non-Market’ Status
Report: US Steel Tariffs Rise 500% on Chinese?Exports
On May 18 the U.S. Department of Commerce ruled that imports of cold-rolled steel from China will be subject to a maximum 266% anti-dumping duty plus a 256% anti-subsidy duty, 24/7WallSt.com reports.
“The ruling is one of three expected on anti-dumping cases involving China,” according to 24/7WallSt.com.
United States Steel Corp. is also seeking a complete ban on imported steel from China “on the basis of alleged hacking attacks against U.S. Steel resulting in the theft of the company’s intellectual property.”
Steel imports from China had a total value of just $2 billion in 2015.
The Metals Service Center Institute called for additional tariffs on imported steel and imported steel containing products plus continuing China’s status as a “non-market” economy.
MSCI – a trade association with 400 members operating 2,500 locations in North America – pointed out in a statement filed with the U.S. Trade Representative an the U.S. Department of Commerce, that U.S. Steel has cut 5,000 jobs since the beginning of 2015 and lost $8 billion.
• Steel shipments in 2015 by MSCI member companies “were barely 65% of peak shipments before the 2008 recession.”
U.S. steel industry recovery from the 2008 recession has taken twice as long as the average recovery of previous recessions.
“The inescapable conclusion is that something more than classic, free market forces are at work in the global steel markets in ways that have harmed U.S. steel producers and manufacturers, the North American steel service center industry, and North American workers,” MSCI stated.
• China’s “market distorting policies” of “massive subsidies to both create new steel production capacity and to maintain existing inefficient capacities at a time of, at most, modest growth in demand” leads to “foreign dumping and predatory pricing,” leading to “unfairly price steel and increasing bankruptcies and lay-offs for North American companies that play by the rules.”
• If negotiations fail to reduce imports, there should be countervailing tariffs and/or import licenses, the MSCI advocated.
Proposed tariffs on imports steel-containing products should correspond to any additional steel tariffs, the service noted.
• The MSCI statement called for the U.S. to “take the long-overdue step of declaring that the Chinese government is a currency manipulator.”
• The 2015 Trade Facilitation & Trade Enforcement Act gives the U.S. government “additional tools an enhanced authority to enforce U.S. trade laws and agreements” – including currency manipulation. The Act requires initiating bilateral negotiations.
MSCI called on the secretary of the Treasury to “initiate negotiations with China on an expedite basis to ensure that China regularly an promptly adjusts the rate of exchange.”
• MSCI also called for the U.S. government to “resist efforts by the government of China to be declared a ‘market economy’ for the purposes of enforcing the anti-dumping laws of the U.S. and other countries.”
Market economy status for China peaks at the end of 2016 – which is 15 years after the World Trade Organization allow member countries to “use surrogate country prices and costs in prosecuting anti-dumping cases against Chinese products for the first 15 years after China’s accession” to WTO.
The Metals Service Center Institute is an Illinois-based trade association founded in 1909 as the American Horseshoe & Heavy Hardware Association. MSCI reports 400 members operating 2,500 locations in North America. Members purchase about 75 million tons of steel, aluminum and other metals. Tel: 847 485-3000 Email: info@msci.org Web: msci.org ©2016 GlobalFastenerNews.com
For more of the Metals Service Center Institute’s statement, FIN Subscribers can CLICK HERE.
For the GlobalFastenerNews feature on “Fastener Prices Rising Based on Jump in Cost of China’s Steel,” FIN Subscribers can CLICK HERE.
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