Economist Chris Kuehl: 'Tariffs on Raw Materials Don’t Work'

Fabricators and Manufacturers Association (FMA) Chief Economist Chris Kuehl believes Section 232 tariffs will not create a trade war and that most of what is happening now is nothing more than posturing. Although he told SMU that “trade wars are not unusual as countries try to protect their domestic products.”

Kuehl was critical of how the steel industry has been treated over the decades since the boom years in the 1950s and ’60s. He told FMA members, “We have been treating the steel industry like a bastard step-child for decades.” He went on to point out a few government policies that have hurt the steel industry: fuel efficiency standards thave favor other materials over steel; the lack of a coherent energy policy for an energy market that is a big user of steel for pipe and storage; and lack of action on infrastructure over the past 20 years. He also pointed out that the U.S. sells mothballed navy vessels to other countries where they are stripped and remelted to make new steel in their furnaces, not those in the U.S., because the scuttling process is considered too environmentally unfriendly.