Speaking at the second session of the SteelOrbis Spring 2023 Conference & 88th IREPAS Meeting held in Barcelona, Jessica DiPietro, associate at Arent Fox LLP and Bulent R. Hacioglu, managing partner at Trade Resources Company, talked about the current state of US trade measures, the economic policies affecting the steel import trade, and compared the policies of the Trump and Biden administrations.
Ms. DiPietro said that, under the worker- and union-centric Biden administration, the Section 232 measures, first imposed in the Trump era, remain in place, with limited exclusions for short supply products and tariff rate quotas for products melted and poured in the EU. Regarding the sanctions on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, she pointed out that the sanctions do not only cover Russia. Canada has prohibited imports of certain steel products from Russia and also collects a 35 percent customs duty on products which have been made using Russian scrap. The EU bans imports of products which have been processed in a third country incorporating iron and steel originating from Russia.
Mr. Hacioglu drew attention to the fact that, despite the Section 232 measures, the US has continued to bring other trade cases, adding that some very large cases have been initiated, including on PC strand from 13 countries and OCTG from Mexico, Russia, Argentine and South Korea. Looking at the tariff rate quotas for the EU, the Trade Resources official said that major rebar exporters Portugal and Spain used almost all of their quotas in the first quarter of 2023. He went on to say that, other than antidumping and countervailing duty cases, anticircumvention cases are being brought forward as another protectionist tool. He explained that circumvention investigations are used to expand existing antidumping and countervailing orders to cover additional countries or products not part of the original investigations. Hacioglu also indicated that, with some recent regulatory changes, the US Department of Commerce now allows these anticircumvention duties to be applied retroactively, going back to 2021, and so, if they have not been used yet, they are still an option.