By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 business commentator
Dallas, TX – There wasn't much the rest of the world could do besides verbally make it quite clear they did not support our war in Iraq. But when you hit these countries in the pocketbook, you're darn right they're going to do something about it! I'm Maxine Shapiro with KERA Marketplace Midday.
It would take about a week and a Rhodes scholar to explain exactly what happened to the U.S. steel industry. Basically, while the rest of globe was finding cheaper, more efficient ways to produce steel - we didn't. As cheaper Japanese cars began arriving on shore, Detroit could no longer guilt us into buying American. They tried with their 1991 anti-Japanese/European car campaign. But quickly it was revealed American automakers were not only building these cars with cheap labor in foreign countries, they were also buying their steel from abroad. They could not afford U.S. steel prices.
Come the turn of the century, about 25 American steel companies declared bankruptcy. They whined about low-prices steel imports. "Please, please," they begged the U.S. government, "help us by slapping a huge amount of tariffs on imported steel." And President Bush, wanting to be re-elected more than anything else in the world, so obliged. So in March, duties, as high as 30 percent, were placed on imported steel. The whiners actually wanted 50 percent.
Detroit and other consumers of steel complained, to no avail. So did the European Union - as well as Japan, South Korea, China and a few other countries. But this time, the protests compelled a concrete result. After filing complaints with the World Trade Organization, the WTO confirmed this morning that these duties violate trade rules. But this is no slap on the wrist. The fifteen countries that make up the E.U. have a nice list of U.S. imports in their hands, which they're threatening to impose 100 percent import duties on. That equates to about $2.2 billion of tariffs. "Either remove the steel duties NOW or we retaliate."
Wow, good for them. For KERA Marketplace Midday, I'm Maxine Shapiro.
Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 p.m.
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