Congressional Steel Caucus Asks President Biden To Keep Section 232 Tariffs

More than 50 members of the Congressional Steel Caucus, including Co-Chairs Conor Lamb (R-Penn.) and Frank J. Mrvan (D-Ind.) and Co-Vice Chairs Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) and Mike Bost (R-Ill.), recently sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to keep President Donald Trump’s Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum in place.

The letter, available here, said, “As members of the Congressional Steel Caucus, we work closely with industry and labor and recognize the impact that unfairly traded imports and global steel overcapacity have had on the nation’s steel sector.” The letter also noted that the “impact of the tariffs and quotas have resulted in significant reductions in imports, and that “it is important that these tariffs and quotas remain in place to ensure the industry can continue its road to recovery.”

As a reminder, 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, in 2017 MSCI 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.