Japan Mulls Retaliatory Tariffs In US Steel Spat

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

08 May 2002

According to Japanese newspaper the Yomiuri Shimbu, the government is considering imposing a 100% tariff on US steel imports, which would effectively shut out such products from Japan in retaliation against Washington's decision in March to impose 30% tariffs on various types of steel import.

Japan's steel imports from the US, including cold-rolled steel sheets and galvanized sheets, and special steel products such as stainless steel, amount to only about 8,000 tons, and the amount of duty involved would be relatively small.

In fact, the government it taking a relatively conciliatory line towards the US, saying that it will limit retaliatory tariffs to steel imports because the safeguards make it clear that there are problems only with the steel trade and because Japan wants to prevent creating friction in general trade that could cause Washington to tax other products.

The government will send a list of retaliatory tariffs to the World Trade Organization next week, but will not make a decision regarding the tariffs until after it negotiates with Washington through June 17, the deadline for affected exporters to retaliate against the US tariffs.

Recommended