The Biden administration is being urged to consider reimposing Section 232 tariffs on steel from Mexico in response to a surge in imports.
The U.S. lifted its 25 percent section 232 tariffs on steel products from Mexico in May 2019 but warned that these tariffs could be reimposed if imports surged in the future. In a Feb. 14 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a bipartisan group of nearly a dozen senators asserted that this has in fact occurred.
“Since the U.S. lifted Section 232 tariffs, Mexican steel conduit imports have reached unprecedented levels and Mexico’s penetration of the U.S. steel conduit market has more than tripled,” the letter said. “The volume of annual iron and steel imports from Mexico has increased approximately 73 percent over the pre-Section 232 2015-2017 baseline … and steel conduit imports have risen by an even more disturbing 577 percent.”
Moreover, the letter said, a recent investigation by U.S. Customs and Border Protection “revealed that importers misclassified steel conduit exports, concealing this extraordinary surge.”
Stating that this increase has already cost more than 200 U.S. jobs and led to the closing of one of the handful of U.S. factories that still produce steel conduit, the senators said the Biden administration should immediately begin consultations with Mexico with the goal of returning imports to “historic volumes of trade, with quotas, if necessary.” If this effort is unsuccessful, they added, the administration should “consider other mechanisms to ensure compliance and protect America jobs, including the reapplication of Section 232 tariffs.”
