Bush lifting of steel tariffs likely to hurt steel, coal companies

摘要

Responding to a threat by steel-producing countries of a trade war, President Bush on Dec. 4 axed his 20-month-old tariffs on foreign steel imports. The lifting of the tariffs will likely have an indirect impact on coal producers that sell into the metallurgical market. Producers could well see a cut in demand and a problem with lowered creditworthiness for some of their steel industry customers. As a conciliatory gesture, the White House announced a beefed-up monitoring program to guard against a sudden flood of foreign steel entering the country. The program requires steel importers to apply for import licenses, giving the feds a quicker way to detect import surges than waiting for Customs Service import data. The administration also pledged aggressive use of U.S. antidumping laws should imports surge. And Bush said that U.S. negotiators would continue to push America's trading partners to put in place "new and strong disciplines on subsidies" that foreign governments provide to their domestic steel producers.