steel tin plate factory

Get ready for what may soon become the newest example of the inconsistency of the “worker‐centered” trade policy of the administration of President Joe Biden: tariffs on imports of tinplate steel, the steel sheets covered by a thin layer of tin that are used to make the cans that package many of the staples for families of American workers, especially the poorer among them.Canned soup. Canned tomatoes. Canned corn. Canned baby food. The prices of these and numerous other basics of daily sustenance for millions of Americans may be about to increase significantly.The current consideration of these tariffs was not initiated by the Biden administration, but it will become a test of the much‐ballyhooed “worker‐centeredness” of the president’s trade policy. Cleveland‐Cliffs, an Ohio company that mills tinplate steel, and an allied union, have filed a petition claiming that they are facing unfair competition from cheaper foreign imports. In response, President Biden’s appointees in the Commerce Department and the quasi‐judicial International Trade Commission are considering tariffs of nearly 300 percent on imported tinplate steel from eight countries — the United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands, and China.In the petition, countervailing duties to alleged subsidies are sought on imports from China. Anti‐dumping duties are sought on imports from the other seven countries. Under U.S. law, the Commerce Department will impose countervailing or anti‐dumping duties on a product when it determines imports of it are being subsidized and/or dumped, and if the ITC determines that the domestic industry is materially injured or threatened with such injury because of imports of that product.