Reactions from other nations to the Bush Administration’s Section 201 trade measures protecting American steelmakers are beginning to take shape.
Japan has said it will notify the World Trade Organization (WTO) that it will impose 100 percent tariffs on certain types of steel and steel products made in the U.S.
The European Union has also notified the WTO of its plans to levy 100 percent tariffs on certain U.S. goods, including non-steel-related items such as fruit and textiles.
Russian ministers, meanwhile, are vowing to be “tougher on imports” while also restructuring their nation’s steel industry. The import-related comment struck some observers as curious, since Russia currently exports more than three-quarters of the steel it produces domestically.
The tariff plans by Japan are being called, “a necessary step to retain our right to rebalancing measures,” by Vice Trade Minister Katsusada Hirose, as reported by Reuters.
According to the Reuters report, representatives from the U.S. and Japan are continuing to negotiate to prevent an escalation of tariffs by both nations. Japan will reportedly ask the WTO to set up a dispute settlement panel between the two nations if no headway is made on the issue.
The Russian initiative may offer hope of production cutbacks, seen by most steel industry observers as vital to easing a global overcapacity situation.
Comments made by Russian Minister of Industry Ilya Klebanov and reported by AP refer to a restructuring that addresses the fact that Russia exports 80 percent of the steel it makes, and relies on its metals industry for eight percent of its gross domestic product.
Klebanov says a genuine restructuring would involve closing inefficient facilities and numerous job layoffs. Russian state television reported a figure of as many as 350,000 lost jobs, according to AP.
As many as 1.5 million people in are employed at some 3,500 metals-producing factories in Russia.