wiredinUSA August 2019

More tariff proposals

The US Department of Commerce has announced a preliminary determination which could affect solar racking and tracking systems makers, including those who suffered less consequence from earlier rounds of global tariffs on steel and aluminum. The commerce department will now focus on various types of fabricated structural steel parts from Canada, China and Mexico, which together represented $2.2 billion worth of imports into the United States last year. Canadian structural steel was found to have received minimal levels of the kinds of subsidies that are prohibited under international trade rules, and as a result will likely suffer no tariffs.

However, the Department of Commerce has assigned between 30 percent and 177 percent in preliminary subsidy rates to Chinese steel makers, and up to 74 percent to Mexican steel makers. Together, these two nations exported $1.5 billion in structural steel products to the US in 2018. In both cases the highest subsidy rates (177 percent and 74 percent) were reserved for companies that did not respond. While tariff rates have yet to be set, trade authorities have begun to collect deposits on these products when they reach the United States from China and Mexico.

wiredInUSA - August 2019

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