Wilbur Ross
Washington: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross (pictured) said the Trump administration has decided to defer a decision on steel tariffs as it focuses on getting tax reforms through Congress.
“The policy decision has been made to postpone that until the tax bill,” Ross said Friday in an interview on Bloomberg Television, when asked about his department’s review of the national-security implications of steel imports.
Shares of major US steelmakers declined after Ross’s remarks. US Steel Corp. dropped the most, falling as much as 6.1 percent and extending its two-day decline, while Nucor Corp., AK Steel Holding Corp. and Steel Dynamics Inc. also fell.
Commerce will give President Donald Trump a range of options when it reports its findings on the steel investigation, said Ross. But overhauling the tax system is the “single most important”’ thing on the administration’s agenda, one that will drive job creation, he said.
“It’s not so much a question of backing away, it’s a question of timing,” Ross said earlier Friday in an interview on CNBC, in which he was asked repeatedly about when his department would announce trade decisions, including on steel. “Tax is extremely important because that’s the biggest single incremental factor in getting growth over 3 percent,” he said.
The administration doesn’t want to “unnecessarily irritate” lawmakers as it builds support for a bill to overhaul taxes, Ross said. Commerce has been investigating the impact on national security of steel imports under seldom-used Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.
While Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on foreign steel, Commerce has yet to report its findings, despite months of speculation that a ruling is imminent.
Steelworkers traveled to Washington this week to protest the delay, saying the US industry is being hurt by foreign dumping. The US steel industry is divided over imposing blocks on steel imports. US producers want protection against foreign competitors that they say are undercutting prices and in some cases unfairly subsidised. US steel users, which rely on cheaper imports, have said import restraints could raise prices for consumer goods they manufacture.
