At the 14th SteelOrbis Steel Conference “New Horizons in Steel Markets” held on Wednesday, November 6 in Istanbul, Bülent Hacıoğlu, partner of Turkey-based Trade Resources Company, started his presentation by giving general information about trade measures and the way they are implemented. Remarking that in the US antidumping duties totaled 41 and countervailing duty reached 18 in 2018 and that across the world protectionist measures reached 1,815, Mr. Hacıoğlu said that, even before Trump was elected, some changes had been made that paved the way for the rise of protectionism, noting that important antidumping investigations against certain countries, including Turkey, had already been started in 2015
Mr. Hacıoğlu stated that the US administration’s Section 232 measures triggered many other investigations, and that the biggest one of these investigations led to the safeguard measures which was implemented by the EU, affecting about 30 million mt of imports. He also emphasized that the EU said in its announcement that it was going to implement these measures in reprisal for the US measures. He went on to comment that if the US makes changes in its measures, other protective measures implemented in reaction to their measures could also be cancelled, pointing out that, as a result of reprisal measures, US agricultural exports have been affected the most, and even Trump has had to announce a stimulus package worth $25 billion for the agricultural sector.
Hacıoğlu said the only institution that can resist such trade measures is the World Trade Organization, for better or for worse, and commented, “I believe that the only way out is still the WTO as long as it has the ability to function properly.”