November 28, 2003

Bush May Dump Steel Tariffs

It looks like some sense has come to the Bush administration on those stupid steel tarrifs.

Speculation mounted on Friday that Washington will scrap or roll back controversial steel tariffs after it sought and obtained an effective delay in retaliatory sanctions by countries opposed to them.

...

Officially, Washington wanted the delay because it had not been expecting the meeting to take place before Dec. 10, the legal deadline for WTO states to ratify the court decision.

"The president has said he would make a decision in a timely manner and this action will provide additional time, and the ongoing review will continue," said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan.

But the delay comes amid increasing signs that President Bush's administration is considering ditching the duties, initially for up to 30 percent, which it imposed in 2002 to help defend the country's struggling steel industry against cheap imports.

Ending the tariffs 16 months ahead of schedule could spark a political backlash against Bush in next year's presidential election in the pivotal steel-producing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

But key Bush advisers have concluded the tariffs are causing more harm than good and that lifting them would boost Bush's standing with steel consuming industry, another important constituency, political sources say.

Tariffs usually cause more harm than good. That's why free traders like myself oppose them. If Bush and Rove would have listened to me instead of made a purely politically strategic decision, the harm to steel-using businesses wouldn't have happened, and the U.S. wouldn't be close to a trade war with the E.U.

"Speculation Mounts Bush May Give Way on Steel"