President Joe Biden on Sunday hailed the joint global sustainable steel arrangement聽between the聽United States and European Union that would聽ease some tariffs on steel and aluminium, and curb “dirty” Chinese steel imports,聽calling it a “new era of transatlantic cooperation.”
In a joint address at a聽press conference in Rome with European commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Biden called the agreement a “major breakthrough that will address the existential threat of climate change while also protecting American jobs and American industry.”
agreement will immediately remove聽tariffs on the European Union on a range of U.S. products that were聽enacted during former President Donald Trump’s administration,聽and lower costs to American consumers.
It will also ensure “a strong and competitive U.S. steel industry for decades to come” while聽protecting workers and industry by creating “good-paying union jobs at home,” Biden said.
Biden also said the new agreement would “lift up U.S. aluminum and steel” and “incentivize emission reductions in one of the most carbon intensive sectors of the global economy.”
deal would also “restrict access to our markets for dirty steel from countries like China, and counter countries that dumped steel in our markets, hammering our workers and harming them badly along with the industry and our environment,” Biden said.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters that the deal will maintain U.S. “Section 232” tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, while allowing “limited volumes” of EU-produced metals into the United States duty free, although officials did not聽specify the volume of duty-free steel to be allowed into the United States under a tariff-rate quota system agreed upon with the EU.
agreement also聽grants an additional two years of duty-free access above the quota for EU steel products that won Commerce Department exclusions in the past year.
deal requires EU聽steel and aluminum to be entirely produced in the bloc鈥攁 standard known as “melted and poured”鈥攖o qualify for duty-free status.
Trump in March 2018 imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent levy on aluminum imports. Some countries were permanently exempted from the tariffs, including South Korea, Argentina, Australia, and Brazil, while the levy on Canada and Mexico was lifted after the signing of the United States鈥揗exico鈥揅anada Agreement.
tariffs were put in place after a Section 232 investigation found foreign products were a threat to U.S. national security. However, it led Europeans and some other countries to impose counter-tariffs on U.S. products, including whiskey, motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter, and jeans, among other items.
Raimondo said on April 17 that the Trump-era tariffs saved jobs in the United States.
“With respect to tariffs, there is a place for tariffs. 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum have in fact helped save American jobs in the steel and aluminum industries,” Raimondo told reporters at the White House.
However, on Saturday聽the commerce secretary聽applauded the new agreement for “protecting American jobs.”
“By agreeing to this framework, we are protecting American jobs, we are showing that clean manufacturing can be good for business and consumers, we are creating more incentives for steel and aluminum consumers to purchase American and European products, and we are helping the planet,” Raimondo said in a teleconference with聽National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
“For far too long, China was routing its cheap steel into the U.S. via Europe and other markets, which drove down prices and made it essentially impossible for America steel and aluminum industry to compete,” Raimondo continued. “And of course, in so doing, hurting the industry, hurting our workers鈥攕o today’s agreement enables us to allow limited volumes of steel to enter the U.S. tariff-free while still protecting America’s steel industry by ensuring that all steel entering the U.S. via Europe is produced entirely in Europe.”
Allen Zhong and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Pezou : Biden Hails Arrangement Between US and EU That Will Curb ‘Dirty’ Chinese Steel Imports