Domestic Groups Urge Commerce to Move Forward on 232 Investigations Despite Opposition
Nine domestic industry groups urged Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on July 18 to persevere with the Trump administration’s Section 232 investigations on steel and aluminum, despite “vague speculation” about trade retaliation. “Global trade has been nonreciprocal, in part, because past administrations have wrongly viewed enforcement of trade rules as protectionism even as other countries made full use of those rules,” the groups said in a July 18 letter (here). The 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade allows countries to protect national security, and the World Trade Organization system prevents any “uncontrollable trade retaliation” for using the provision. There have been no such retaliatory countermeasures leveled against nations that assess trade measures based on national security, the groups wrote.
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The letter further asserts that predictions of diplomatic harm outlined in a letter from 15 former chairpersons of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers to President Donald Trump (see 1707130034) are “unwarranted,” because other countries’ use of national security provisions hasn’t caused such harm. “Many of the signatory economists supported past trade agreements, in part, because of promises to reduce trade distortions and foreign government subsidies,” the groups said. “The administration’s Section 232 investigation is a chance to neutralize the trade distorting harm of foreign subsidies that have directly caused damaging overcapacity in the target industries.” Current trading institutions can’t address global overcapacity, and trade balances and distortions, the groups said. Signers to the July 18 letter include the Committee to Support U.S. Trade Laws, the Coalition for a Prosperous America and the National Farmers Union.