South Africa Expected To Impose Steel Tariffs
08/25/2015 - Heeding calls from labor groups and its steel industry, South Africa is planning to impose a 10-percent tariff on steel imports, according to Reuters.
Citing a statement from the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa, the news service said the tariff is expected to be announced next week.
"The first application for tariffs at 10 percent of the WTO bound rate will be signed off next week with conditions which are not yet finalized," the federation said in a statement.
According to Reuters, the federation said the tariff is coming in the understanding that domestic steelmakers won't raise prices to "unaffordable levels." The federation didn't elaborate, Reuters said.
According to Reuters, South Africa currently does not have import duties on steel. The country's steelmakers, like their counterparts elsewhere in the world, are being impacted by imports of inexpensive, Chinese-made steel.
ArcelorMittal South Africa Ltd., for instance, has warned that it may be forced to close some plants. Evraz Highveld Steel & Vanadium, the country's second-largest steel producer, is currently on the sales block.
