In his presentation at the SteelOrbis 2017 Spring Conference & 76th IREPAS Meeting held in Budapest on March 26-28, Matthew Nolan, partner at Arent Fox said that, since Turkey is the world’s ninth-largest steel exporter, eighth-largest steel producer and sixth-largest steel importer, it is no surprise that the country has become a target in the US market.
Looking at the 2012 figures, Mr. Nolan said that Turkey’s long products exports jumped, almost doubling compared to the previous year, causing US-based steel producers to target Turkish exports. While Canada is the third-largest exporter of steel to the US, it is not slapped with trade measures since Canada and the US jointly own steel mills, and this indicates that trade cases are mostly strategic. Nolan added that duty investigations are usually about boosting the domestic price rather than a remedy for fair trade. He said that, for the most part, people are trying to change market dynamics through trade cases.
Mr. Nolan talked about the America First Trade Policy which ensures that companies will stay in the US and create jobs in the country, adding that it means that “it is not about trading anymore, it is about what is going to benefit the US economy”. He also informed the participants at the event in Budapest regarding a White House memo sent to the Department of Commerce encouraging the use of a newly-introduced and untested methodology in an ongoing trade case because it has a higher chance of resulting in measures.
Lastly, he hinted at what the trade cases will look like with Trump’s new trade team, most of whom are former counsels to US steel companies.