Majority of the steel industry leaders give full support to S201
Industry sources report that 48
US steel leaders, consisting of companies, unions and trade associations which represent bulk of steel produced in the US every year, have submitted a letter to President Bush stating that the safeguard measures should be in place for the full three years.
According to the
US steel leaders, these measures played a very important role restructuring of the steel industry where over $3.6 billion has been invested for consolidation, as well as in recovering of the steel companies. Besides the fact that still much remains to be done, in case S201 measures are lifted the improvements achieved so far will be put at risk.
They also add that the slight negative impact of around $30.4 million recorded on International Trade Commission's (ITC) report released back in September on the measures and their impact to steel consuming industries, for the first year is seen of negligible importance in an overall economy worth $10 trillion and implementation on steel imports to US must keep its validity for the full three years as scheduled.