In a new paper published Wednesday, researchers said that relaxing or eliminating the Section 232 tariffs in the absence of any actions against global excess capacity would put the U.S. steel industry at risk, imperiling new investments and hundreds of thousands of good jobs. 

“The domestic steel industry is just beginning to emerge from the depths of the COVID-19 recession with a steep hill to climb, given widening excess global steel capacity. With the right policies and major investments planned by the new administration in economic rebuilding, clean energy, and infrastructure construction, U.S. steel producers can be poised for a substantial upswing in employment, output, and investment that fuels growth in clean, efficient, state-of-the-art domestic steel production. The window to this opportunity could be slammed shut by the premature and unplanned elimination of the Section 232 import measures,” they wrote.