Bell, Leibowitz to Talk Trade at Steel Summit

“Any efforts to delay or reduce the collection of duties on unfairly-traded steel imports or imports that threaten to impair U.S. national and economic security will ultimately hurt U.S. workers and businesses during this unprecedented moment,“ wrote the group in a letter to Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan.

Lewis Leibowitz is a frequent contributor to Steel Market Update and has suggested that Commerce is preferential to the steel industry to the detriment of traders and downstream steel users. In recent comments, Leibowitz wrote that proposed changes to antidumping and countervailing duty regulations “will affect importers and their customers more seriously than before, mostly by looking back at imports and potentially charging them with antidumping and countervailing duties they may have been unaware of.”

Leibowitz has also been critical of Section 232 tariffs, saying they have not led to a revival of the steel and aluminum industries nor changed the behavior of foreign exporters or investors. “Tariffs and quotas on steel and aluminum must serve a broader purpose than protecting individual companies, because other Americans are hurt by them. There is simply no basis that foreign interests actually pay the tariffs, because U.S. importers pay them.”

Whichever view you support, Bell and Leibowitz promise to provide valuable insight on how trade regulation impacts the industry and steel users in North America. Join us for SMU’s Virtual Steel Summit 2020 by registering here.