While trade agreements between the US and other steel-producing nations are always noteworthy, Craig Lewis, a partner at Hogan Lovells US LLP, highlighted two that are still under negotiation to attendees at SteelOrbis’ sixth annual Rebar & Wire Rod conference in Las Vegas February 2. Based on the value of the economies involved, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) will “dwarf all prior trade agreements” in US history, and both have heavy implications in the US steel market.
Most people, Lewis said, are focusing on China’s potential involvement in the TTP, but Vietnam is the “most interesting” on the agreement’s existing list of partners. Specifically, the TTP’s proposed removal of Vietnam’s non-market economy (NME) status, which would ensure the nation couldn’t be used as a transshipment point for Chinese and Indian steel that would otherwise be subject to US AD/CVD tariffs. Other general provisions in the TTP that would be a boon to US steel producers include: labor and environmental policies of partner nations cannot disadvantage US producers; and a press for the privatization of state-owned industries. Both would assuage many concerns US steel producers have about entering trade partnerships with nations that come up frequently on trade law dockets.