White House Extends Ukraine ’s Steel Tariff Exemption; Sad Reminder of Steel Protectionism

Clark PackardOn the heels of Russia ’s aggressive war against Ukraine in early 2022, the Biden administration temporarilyexempted Ukrainian steel from the Trump administration ’s bogus “national security” tariffs imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (at the behest of the domestic steel industry). The exemption was set to expire on June 1, 2023, with tariffs snapping back to 25 percent. Last week, the White Houseannounced it would maintain Ukraine ’s exemption from tariffs and expanded it to cover Ukrainian steel processed within the European Union (EU). For free traders battered by ill‐​advised protectionism over the last two administrations, this announcement is what constitutes good news these days. As my Cato colleague Scott Lincico me rightlynoted on Twitter, “… this exemption is a tacit admission that opening our markets to goods/​services from allies&  other friendly nations is IN THEIR AND OUR OWN SECURITY INTERESTS, but admitting that wouldn’t be very ‘worker‐​centric’,” the latter of which has been a central talking point in the Biden administration’s protectionist trade policy. This (very) minor tariff relief is a positive re lative to the status quo, but it also serves as a sad reminder of the domestic steel industry’s stranglehold on U.S. trade policy.To recap, in 2018 despite a  memorandum from his own Secretary of Defense who rightly noted that the Defense Department only needed three percent ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs