US Steelmakers May Be Open To Early Repeal Of Tariffs

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

21 November 2003

US Steel, Nucor, and the International Steel Group have drafted proposals which would see the controversial US steel import tariffs imposed by the Bush administration phased out by September 2004, the Financial Times has revealed.

Under the terms of the proposals, seen this week by the FT, in addition to eliminating the tariffs six months early, the US government would reduce the amount levied by a third in January 2004, and again in March of next year.

The steel industry organisation suggested that in this way, the United States may be able to avoid the imposition of retaliatory tariffs by the European Union on some $2.2 billion of US goods. At the very least, the proposal paper suggested, the move "would allow the US to make the case that the threatened retaliation is...wildly disproprtionate to the US measures".

However, according to the FT, for the moment at least, the US steel industry is continuing to insist in public that the tariffs should remain in place for the full three years.

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