U.S. Imposes Fresh Duties on Fabricated Steel Imports from China and Mexico

Two months back, U.S. had lifted all the tariffs on steel imports from its two neighbouring countries, Mexico and Canada and now as per the latest updates, the United States has announced fresh duties on some Mexican and Chinese imports of fabricated structural steel on Monday, saying both the countries helped their manufacturers with unfair subsidies.

Fabricated structural steel is used in major building projects, such as bridges, buildings, parking decks, and ports. The duty imposition is in response to a grievance lodged in February by US steel producers. The Department of Commerce found that Mexican and Chinese exporters of fabricated structural steel benefitted from subsidies ranging from 30.3% to 177.43% but in the case of Canada the subsidies were negligible, so no retaliatory duties were imposed.

In 2018, the United States imported USD 722.5 million worth of fabricated structural steel from Canada, USD 897.5 million worth from China and USD 622.4 million worth from Mexico, according to the Commerce Department.

US customs agents will begin collecting import duties based on the subsidy rates, but the funds could be returned if officials later reverse the finding. The independent US International Trade Commission sometimes blocks Commerce Department actions if they find American firms were not harmed by the subsidies. The Department is expected to make its final ruling on the imports around 19 Nov 2019.

In order to give fresh life to the U.S. domestic steel sector, Trump last year announced global tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium but in May agreed to lift them for Mexican and Canada. Despite the global tariffs, the US steel industry has continued to suffer, with production halted at blast furnaces last month and overall employment edging downward at mills and foundries.