US, EU Still Talking About TRQs for Steel, Report Says
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, framing the resolution of the Section 232 tariffs as being careful to guard against transshipment of Chinese steel and preventing import surges, is calling for an end to the tariffs on the European Union, Japan and Korea as quickly as possible. The organization put out a brief this week noting that the cost of steel in the U.S is spiking, and said, "a 'worker-centric' trade policy needs to take into account the U.S. workers employed in manufacturing industries that depend on steel as an input. These workers outnumber those in steel production by approximately 45-to-1, and these much larger industries are badly harmed by the higher costs and shortages imposed by tariffs."
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The question remains, though, are the surges measured from today's volumes, or pre-tariff trade volumes? Reuters reported that a steel industry source said that U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and the European Union negotiators are moving toward a tariff-rate quota system, but that they disagree on whether the TRQ should be based on 2018 data or the trade volume after the tariffs went into effect.
The Aluminum Association continues to argue that TRQs are not a good idea for aluminum at all, and instead, the tariffs should be phased out over a few years (see 2108200016).