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2016-2017. Other major AD/CVD orders focus on to the U.S. has been cleared to dodge the tariff. [For
Chinese aluminum products. Mexico, the figure is one percent.]
This is the context in which the administration The head-scratching discrepancy gets even stranger
last year imposed new import tariffs of 25% on steel with the United States’ 10 per cent tariff on aluminum
and 10% on aluminum from nearly every country on imports. About 86 per cent of Chinese aluminum
earth. (Argentina, Brazil, and South Korea agreed to imports now enter the U.S. tariff-free, while less than
quotas instead; only Australia got a full exemption.) one per cent of Canadian aluminum shipments do.
Introduced in two waves – in March and July – the
tariffs were imposed using a statute dubbed Section “If the whole point was to do this for China in the
232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, and they first place, then why are the approval rates for China
remain in place today. so much higher than other countries?” said Christine
McDaniel, a former White House economic adviser,
Here’s the thing: The Section 232 tariffs have now a senior research fellow with the Mercatus
been implemented in a fashion that has walloped Center at George Mason University. “It just doesn’t
our closest allies and trading partners, such as make sense.”
Canada, but they’ve barely touched China. Drawing
on research by the Mercatus Institute, Janyce This is a bizarre outcome. No one contends that
McGregor of the CBC dug into how the process for Canada is dumping or subsidizing metals sold in the
excluding certain steel and aluminum products U.S. market. In fact, the Heritage Foundation’s Index
from the 232 tariffs: of Economic Freedom ranks Canada “1st among 32
countries in the Americas region” (and ahead of
If the Trump administration’s tariff policy is meant the United States) in its effective commitment to
to target unfair Chinese trade, it sure has a funny way policies that support free enterprise, free markets,
of going about it. and other policies and principles associated with
economic freedom.
So far, the U.S. Department of Commerce has
excluded about 40 per cent of imports of Chinese steel Further, the Section 232 tariffs are imposed under
from facing its 25 per cent tariff. But to date, only two a statute that allows their application when the
per cent of the total volume of Canadian steel imports Commerce Department deems imports “impair
South China Business Journal 12
Chinese aluminum products. Mexico, the figure is one percent.]
This is the context in which the administration The head-scratching discrepancy gets even stranger
last year imposed new import tariffs of 25% on steel with the United States’ 10 per cent tariff on aluminum
and 10% on aluminum from nearly every country on imports. About 86 per cent of Chinese aluminum
earth. (Argentina, Brazil, and South Korea agreed to imports now enter the U.S. tariff-free, while less than
quotas instead; only Australia got a full exemption.) one per cent of Canadian aluminum shipments do.
Introduced in two waves – in March and July – the
tariffs were imposed using a statute dubbed Section “If the whole point was to do this for China in the
232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, and they first place, then why are the approval rates for China
remain in place today. so much higher than other countries?” said Christine
McDaniel, a former White House economic adviser,
Here’s the thing: The Section 232 tariffs have now a senior research fellow with the Mercatus
been implemented in a fashion that has walloped Center at George Mason University. “It just doesn’t
our closest allies and trading partners, such as make sense.”
Canada, but they’ve barely touched China. Drawing
on research by the Mercatus Institute, Janyce This is a bizarre outcome. No one contends that
McGregor of the CBC dug into how the process for Canada is dumping or subsidizing metals sold in the
excluding certain steel and aluminum products U.S. market. In fact, the Heritage Foundation’s Index
from the 232 tariffs: of Economic Freedom ranks Canada “1st among 32
countries in the Americas region” (and ahead of
If the Trump administration’s tariff policy is meant the United States) in its effective commitment to
to target unfair Chinese trade, it sure has a funny way policies that support free enterprise, free markets,
of going about it. and other policies and principles associated with
economic freedom.
So far, the U.S. Department of Commerce has
excluded about 40 per cent of imports of Chinese steel Further, the Section 232 tariffs are imposed under
from facing its 25 per cent tariff. But to date, only two a statute that allows their application when the
per cent of the total volume of Canadian steel imports Commerce Department deems imports “impair
South China Business Journal 12
