US President Donald Trump said that the additional duties on Turkish steel imports have come into force as of Monday, August 13. “Turkey is among the major exporters of steel to the United States for domestic consumption. To further reduce imports of steel articles and increase domestic capacity utilization, I have determined that it is necessary and appropriate to impose a 50 percent ad valorem tariff on steel articles imported from Turkey, beginning on August 13, 2018,” said the President.
The White House statement pointed out that the Secretary of Commerce has informed the President that while capacity utilization in the domestic steel industry has improved, it is still below the target capacity utilization level the Secretary recommended in his report. Although imports of steel articles have declined since the imposition of the Section 232 tariffs in March this year, they are still several percentage points greater than the level of imports that would allow domestic capacity utilization to reach the target level.