[toddst]

This just might get interesting. Perhaps George W. is willing to get tough with the EU over this. Would it be so hard to freeze all shipments from Europe to the U.S. (no ships unloaded) until this tariff issue is settled?

I have a suspicion the EU sells a lot more stuff to us than we do to them. Let the tariff wars begin.

[KantianBurke]

Bush wants a trade war? Thought he wanted to get rid of the recession. (sarcasm)

[shaggy eel]

,,, exactly how many more wars does the US need?

[reg45]

Let the tariff wars begin.

Who are you, Mr. Hawley or Mr. Smoot?

[ThJ1800]

A few that things that should be laid out on this forum:

1. European governments have been reducing subsidies to their steel industries. As a result, their steel companies have had to cut jobs and reorganize.

2. Imports to the US have dropped to below 1997 levels. WTO rules on "safeguard measures" require that the country implementing those measures in response to an increase in imports (whether or not the US should be in the WTO is another question). And, according to the US Geological Survey, the ITC ruled that 1998 imports, which were the highest, did not do significant damage tot he US steel industry.

3. Canada and Mexico account for approximately a 1/3 of US imports, but these two nations have been exempted, which is also a violation of WTO rules, if I understand correctly. Canada, as a single country, is our single largest importer of steel.

4. The US integrated mills, for whom these tariffs have been enacted, face their stiffest competition from domestic mini-mills, not foreign imports, which only account for appreoximately a 1/4 of US steel consumption. Overall production costs of the mini-mills is cheaper - the electric melting process to the scrap steel used. Mini-mills, according one report I saw, now have a 50 percent market share.