Mexico Will Not Be Subject to a Steel Lamination and Cores Section 232 Tariff, USTR Says
The U.S. Trade Representative announced that Mexico “will establish a strict monitoring regime for exports of electrical transformer laminations and cores made of non-North American” grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES), and as a result, if there is to be a tariff or quota on electrical transformers or the laminations and cores that are used in them, Mexico will not be subject to it.
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.
There has been no announcement that a tariff or quota has been recommended to the White House for electrical steel laminates and cores, and a Commerce Department spokesman declined to comment on the timing of any announcement. Earlier in the week, Cleveland-Cliffs, the only U.S. company that makes electrical steel, praised Trump for taking action under the statute to protect it (see 2011030057). That company complained that the 25% tariff on GOES led to higher imports of cores and laminates made from GOES, and so its market share was still imperiled.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a Nov. 5 press release: “The resilience of North America’s energy infrastructure is significantly enhanced by having electrical steel production capability within our region. An influx of low-price steel from third countries imperils this capability. I thank [Mexico Economy] Secretary [Graciela] Márquez and her staff for their continued engagement and close coordination as we worked to find cooperative solutions to a common regional challenge.” Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, responded to the news by saying he's pleased that the agreement that Lighthizer achieved will “protect the workers who produce grain oriented electrical steel in Zanesville, Ohio and Butler, Pennsylvania.”