*EPF211 09/23/2003
Text: USTR to Review Report on Effects of Higher Steel Tariffs
(President must decide on continuing safeguard after WTO ruling) (390)

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) will review reports on the effects of temporary higher tariffs imposed on steel imports imposed by President Bush in March 2002, a USTR spokesman says.

The statement by USTR's Richard Mills refers to two studies released by the independent U.S. International Trade Commission September 19, half way through the three year period of the safeguard measures introduced under Section 201 of U.S. trade law to help the U.S. steel industry to adjust to foreign competition.

The studies, 890 pages total, can be found at http://www.usitc.gov/pub3632/pub3632.htm. They conclude that the temporary tariffs helped the steel industry and hurt the larger economy, both by very small amounts, although certain steel-consuming industries such as the auto sector were hurt disproportionately.

President Bush must make the politically sensitive decision over the next few weeks whether to continue imposing the tariffs through the second half of the safeguard period as planned. Under Section 201, the president can impose temporary tariffs or quotas when a domestic industry has been injured by a surge in imports.

A dispute-settlement panel has ruled that the Section 201 steel tariffs violate World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations. USTR has appealed the ruling.

Following is the text of the statement:

(begin text)

September 19, 2003
Statement of Richard Mills, USTR Spokesman
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Re: The U.S. International Trade Commission's Midterm Monitoring
Report to the President on the Section 201 Steel Safeguards
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Later today, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) will issue its midterm report regarding the temporary steel safeguard measures that the President imposed in March 2002. The ITC is also expected to deliver to the President and the Congress a report regarding the current competitive conditions in steel-consuming industries with respect to the imposition of the safeguard measures (the Section 332 report).
��
We will begin a thorough review and analysis of these reports today, and will use them as a part of our ongoing review of developments in the steel industry, and the economy more generally, since the imposition of the steel safeguard measures. We will also continue our dialogue with steel producers, consumers, Members of Congress, and other interested parties.

(end text)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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