U.S. Oil Industry Calls for Return to Eisenhower-Era Import Quotas
West Texas and Artesia, N.M. oil producers are calling on President Barack Obama to establish quotas on imported foreign oil, in part, to prevent further price and supply wars against the U.S. oil industry, according to a press release (here).…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
“Since Thanksgiving of 2014, Saudi Arabia has increased its production to lower prices to shut-in unconventional oil in all areas of the US but specifically in Texas, Oklahoma and Appalachia where "stripper or marginal wells" are more prevalent,” the release says. “It is a price war which has suspended the prospect of American energy self-sufficiency.” Specifically, the industry group, known as the Panhandle Import Reduction Initiative, seeks to resuscitate the 1959 quota system under President Dwight Eisenhower, which limited heavy sour oil imports to 10 to 12 percent of annual U.S. oil demand. Oil prices and duration of price points as a result of Saudi oil flooding the U.S. market will eventually give way to higher price trends when demand exceeds supply, the coalition said.