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May 20, 2019

MSCI Responds to President Trump’s Decision to Lift Section 232 Steel and Aluminum Tariffs for Canada, Mexico

Rolling Meadows, Ill., May 20, 2019—Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) President and CEO M. Robert Weidner, III released the following statement regarding President Donald Trump’s decision last week to lift Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum product imports from Canada and Mexico.

“From the moment President Trump was considering 232 tariffs on metals’ imports, MSCI argued North American trading partners should be exempt. We are pleased with this decision, and also are pleased that Canada and Mexico have responded in kind. The relationship between these countries benefits metals workers and their families, and the North American economy. This action is a good step toward preserving and strengthening this important relationship.”

“Our industry still faces a glut of global steel and aluminum overcapacity and unfair policies by which countries circumvent fair and free trade policies, but Canada and Mexico never were the issue. The United States’ focus should be on non-market economies like China that subsidize their producers and routinely thwart international law. As U.S. officials engage with their Chinese counterparts on trade, they should make efforts to address global metals overcapacity a primary goal.”

Last September, Weidner, along with Holman Head, president and chief operating officer of O’Neal Industries in Birmingham, Ala., and William T. Chisholm, CEO of Samuel, Son & Co. in Ontario sent a letter to President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling for an end to tariffs on metals imports.

Click here to read MSCI’s 2017 comments on the Trump administration’s Section 232 steel and aluminum tariff investigations. MSCI’s NAFTA comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which highlight the specific benefits of the countries’ trading relationship, are here.

MSCI is a North American trade association that represents more than 285 businesses with almost 2,400 locations in North America and around the globe. The metals industry is directly responsible for hundreds of thousands of metals jobs across the continent, but also sustains jobs in many other industries, from energy to aerospace to construction.

About MSCI

Founded in 1909, the Metals Service Center Institute is a nonprofit association based in Rolling Meadows, Ill., serving the industrial metals supply chain. Visit www.MSCI.org, MSCI’s online resource MSCI.org/Edge, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and connect with us on LinkedIn.

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