US steel industry calls for further import tariffs

US STEEL companies have renewed calls for the imposition of hefty tariffs on steel shipments from all developing countries. They claim that an influx of imports is undermining protection promised to the industry. This follows the imposition last March by President George W. Bush of tariffs of up to 30% on most imported steel. An industry group is pushing for tariffs on an additional 30 developing country producers and Mexico. The last round of tariffs affected imports from Europe, Japan and Korea. But India, Egypt, Mexico and Canada, which were excluded from the tariffs, have filled that gap. According to the Financial Times, World Trade Organisation rules require developing countries to be excluded if they account in total for less than 10 % of the imports of any product, a threshold they have exceeded. That could allow further tariffs without breaking WTO rules.