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Imposing Section 232 Measures Could Start Trade War, Critics Say
07/18/2017 - U.S. President Donald Trump is being warned that he could wind up instigating a trade war and upending the global trading system if he imposes restrictions on steel imports in the name of national security, reports The Hill newspaper.
“The unspoken pledge among [WTO] members was that no government would invoke national security to restrict trade unless there was a legitimate national security imperative to do so,” Dan Ikenson, director of the Cato Institute's Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies, told The Hill.
“That is clearly not the case today, and Trump’s actions on steel would make a mockery of that pledge, opening the door to systematic abuse, which will imperil the trading system,” he said.
The Trump administration is considering whether to impose tariffs and other restrictions on steel imports under Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act, which allows the president to unilaterally impose trade measures in the name of protecting national security.
Recommendations to the president could come from the Commerce Department this week.
Although Trump faces strong opposition, steel producers and their workforces are hoping that the administration will move to protect the industry. Among those are the 1,200 United States Steel Corporation employees who remain laid off from its Granite City, Ill., blast furnace.
“We're waiting on the 232 to get us back to work," Chris Bragg, who was laid off in November 2015, told the Reuters news service.
“That is clearly not the case today, and Trump’s actions on steel would make a mockery of that pledge, opening the door to systematic abuse, which will imperil the trading system,” he said.
The Trump administration is considering whether to impose tariffs and other restrictions on steel imports under Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act, which allows the president to unilaterally impose trade measures in the name of protecting national security.
Recommendations to the president could come from the Commerce Department this week.
Although Trump faces strong opposition, steel producers and their workforces are hoping that the administration will move to protect the industry. Among those are the 1,200 United States Steel Corporation employees who remain laid off from its Granite City, Ill., blast furnace.
“We're waiting on the 232 to get us back to work," Chris Bragg, who was laid off in November 2015, told the Reuters news service.
