Industry and Labor Urge Biden to Keep Steel Tariffs Amid Escalating Steel Prices

Seven of the leading groups representing the domestic steel industry and labor have sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging his administration to ensure steel tariffs put in place in 2018 to protect national security are preserved, according to a press statement issued by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC). 

In early 2018, then-President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on imported steel and 10% on imported aluminum from most countries, arguing such protections were necessary for U.S. national security to maintain healthy domestic production. In February, the U.S. Court of International Trade upheld these tariffs (Reuters, February 4, 2021) in a ruling denying a steel importer’s challenge to the duties. But while their validity was upheld, President Biden faces mounting pressured to remove the tariffs in light of supply shortages and skyrocketing steel costs.

U.S. steel producers hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic have proven slow to recover…