Inflation Fears Surface as Alert Signals Stalling of Trump’s Tariffs.
The Trump’s Tariffs are supposed to prevent import of foreign steel and aluminum. However, President Trump’s approval of steel and aluminum tariffs, while originally hailed as a tool to combat overcapacity, has resulted in rising costs that are neither keeping the material out of the U.S.
still feel the full force of a protective tax on those materials.
, and there are other examples, including washing machines and solar panels, both hitting full legislative force in February.
Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs are at the core of his and the rest of Washington’s efforts to slow imports and reduce the huge inflows of both.
At the end of last year, the Trump administration invited comments on its metals duties. As of March 1, it will begin the process of hearing responses.
That is a potentially winning argument for many foreign competitors seeking an exemption. They would argue that in the absence of a market for steel or aluminum, the dynamics of any smelters’ or mills’ expansion or contraction are decided purely by market forces.
The American steel and aluminum industries’ lobbies would counter that none of that is working and their industries are in danger of being crushed. Their costs are going relentlessly higher, reflecting higher foreign prices.
Chinese mills, in particular, have jacked up prices in recent months to fend off the disruption that is coming with the arrival of their 25 per cent duties.
Last year, those involved in the U.S. duty review filed 1,100 confidential optional text (OT) petitions.
None was more influential in shaping the Trump tariffs last spring than the married couple Randy and Cheryl serves, a former top executive and chief lobbyist for United States Steel Corp.
and his spouse, Cheryl, who served as the top, although little known, beneficiary of that title, the only registered lobbyist in Mr. Granstadt’s Washington shop as U.S. Steel’s top Washington policy adviser, have quit U.S. Steel to lend their precise brand of advocacy to the United States aluminum industry.
The new lobbying group, called the Aluminum Association, will unveil soon, with its initial funder being Century Aluminum Co., the giant Kentucky smelter owner that won concessions from Mr. Trump in exempting it from the original steel duties.
The Association, a 130-member lobbying association for the U.S. aluminum industry, has been seeking a larger role on the policy front in Washington since hiring Michael Bromwich, a former Obama administration inspector general in the Justice Department.
After Trump won his election, Bromwich’s coup was hiring the now-former U.S. Steel executives as a team, according to a public filing by the big producer minutes before they turned in their notices that they would be resigning in early December.
The transition between that former leadership team and the new one is still under way, with Thomas Gibson, a longtime lobbyist who was previously U.S. Steel’s top Washington executive and also their point man with both U.S. and foreign capitals for years before Mr. Granstadt took over, continuing to represent the company in dealing with U.S. and foreign officials.
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