U.S. Senators Ask White House To Keep Section 232 Metals Tariffs In Place
Before the United States’ Thanksgiving holiday, two U.S. lawmakers, Sen. Bob Casey (D-Penn.) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking that his administration keep in place Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports into the United States and Section 301 tariffs on other products from China.
“These tariffs are essential to level the playing field for American workers to compete and counter unfair trade practices by China, which seeks to circumvent our trade laws, steal American technology, and cheat and bully its way to global economic dominance,” the senators wrote.
In their letter, Sens. Casey and Brown cited a 2022 report from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative that examined China’s compliance with World Trade Organization rules and argued that report underscored the underlying economic reasons and market conditions that justify the continuation of the tariffs. The two senators also cited a March 2023 report from the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) that found the Section 301 and 232 tariffs led to significant increases in domestic production in the tariffed industries that were analyzed.
Read the full letter here.
As a reminder, when it comes to Section 232 tariffs, Connecting the Dots reports developments for members’ information only.
MSCI consistently has argued that global overcapacity and other unfair trading practices, particularly by China, have harmed the U.S. steel and aluminum markets. To address this circumvention, MSCI has advised federal officials to provide relief for producers up and down the supply chain and to consider the consequences of any new trade policy, including: the economic impact of global overcapacity on the entire domestic metals supply chain; transition times and implementation rules to any new policy; availability of domestic metals to meet U.S. national security needs, as well as general industrial and consumer demand; and trade flows under current free trade agreements, including the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA). MSCI also asked that Canada and Mexico be excluded from any trade penalties.
Click here to review all of MSCI’s advocacy on Section 232 tariffs.