US Treasury Secretary determined to save free trade – Let's start with steel

In his first major speech since taking over the US Treasury, Henry Paulson decried the lamentable collapse of the Doha Round of world free trade negotiations. He pointed out that everybody will benefit from reforms and from opening themselves to trade and competition. Secretary Paulson expressed his determination to fight protectionist sentiments. What good and unequivocal statements. No better place to start than at home with the most protected industry of all – steel. Here are a few figures. Currently, 23 steel products are subject to either antidumping (ad) or countervailing duties (cvd) penalties. There are 136 cases pending against numerous countries. The hardest hit country is South Korea with 16 ad/cvd cases against its steel products. It is followed by Japan (15), Brazil (14), Italy (10), India (10) and so on. Even if countries such as Latvia or Moldova have “only” one case against them, it shuts down almost all of their steel exporting to the US. The most protected items are hot rolled cut–to-length plates (19 countries under ad/cvd penalties), hot rolled coils (14) and standard pipes (12). It's no coincidence that these are the items for which US market prices remain high. Let's start the reforms right here.