Trump administration launches investigation into steel imports

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has launched an investigation into whether imports of steel compromise U.S. national security, a step toward fulfilling a campaign promise of cracking down more severely on the unfair trading practices of countries like China.

President Donald Trump gathered with steel industry executives and press in the Oval Office Thursday to sign a memo directing the Commerce Department to expedite the investigation, which was officially launched Wednesday night. Trump called the signing “a historic day for American steel and, most importantly, for American steelworkers.”

Trump added that the administration would release further information in the next two weeks about its plans for the North American Free Trade Agreement, which candidate Trump repeatedly promised to renegotiate. He also criticized Canada’s behaviour under NAFTA, saying, “What they’ve done to our dairy farm workers is a disgrace” and that NAFTA had been “a disaster for our country.”

In a briefing Thursday morning about the investigation, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the review would consider how much steel the United States needs to defend itself, and whether domestic capacity meets those requirements. Steel imports now make up more than 26 per cent of the entire U.S. marketplace, and the report will examine to what extent those imports impinge on U.S. economic and national defence security, he said.

The investigation could result in the Commerce Department recommending that the United States impose broad tariffs on steel imports, Ross said. “The important question is protecting our defence needs. And we will do whatever is necessary to do that, but we’ve come to no conclusion yet, because the study is just recently begun.”

The investigation, which was self-initiated by the Commerce Department rather than the steel industry itself, revives a section of a little-used trade law, the 1962 Trade Expansion Act. Section 232 of the law allows the government to impose a wide variety of barriers on steel imports for national security reasons.

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump declined to say that the order was directed at China, which has about half of the world’s steel capacity and has flooded the global market with cheap steel in recent years.

“This has nothing to do with China,” Trump said. “This has to do with worldwide, what’s happening. ”

Executives from Arcelor Mittal, Nucor Corporation, U.S. Steel, the United Steelworkers were present at the signing.

U.S. steel stocks surged Thursday, with United States Steel Corp. climbing more than 7 per cent by early afternoon. AK Steel soared 7.4 per cent, while Nucor Corporation gained 3.4 per cent.

The U.S. steel industry has been shedding jobs for decades, partly due to the development of steel furnaces that are increasingly efficient and automated, and partly due to growing capacity in countries like China. Trump’s message resonated in steel-producing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania that were vital to his election.