WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s administration took new steps to curb steel imports from Brazil and Mexico on Monday, boosting protections for American steelmakers and jobs in the election battleground states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.
The US Trade Representative’s (USTR) office said it was reducing Brazil’s remaining 2020 quota for semi-finished steel imports into the US to 60,000 metric tonnes from 350,000 tonnes “in light of recent deterioration in market conditions brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic affecting domestic steel producers”.
Brazil agreed to the quotas in 2018 in exchange for an exemption from Trump’s 25 per cent `Section 232’ national security tariffs on steel imports.
USTR said it would maintain existing quotas for other Brazilian-made steel products and would consult with Brazil about the country’s 2021 quota for semi-finished steel in December, “by which time we hope market conditions will have improved”.
Mexico also agreed in consultations with USTR to establish a strict monitoring regime to address surges in steel pipe, mechanical steel tubing and semi-finished steel exports to the US.
USTR gave no details on how the monitoring regime would work, but said the arrangement will also maintain Mexico’s exemption from Section 232 steel duties.
According to an official Mexican government decree announcing the deal, the export monitoring regime is aimed at preventing the transshipment of steel pipe, tubing and semi-finished steel from China and other countries through Mexico to the US.
It said Mexican exporters would need to obtain a government permit in advance to export these products.