January 5, 2024
(Alexandria, Virginia) — Consumer Action for a Strong Economy (CASE) praised the Department of Commerce’s release this morning of its “Final Antidumping Duty Determinations” for imported tin mill steel, which the department issued in response to petitions filed by U.S. steel giant Cleveland-Cliffs and the United Steelworkers calling for double and triple digit tariff increases on steel exported by eight U.S. trading partners.
Said CASE in a statement issued by chairman Gerard Scimeca and president Matthew Kandrach, “This is a good day for U.S. consumers, manufacturers, and our national economy as Commerce has overwhelmingly rejected Cleveland-Cliffs’ fictitious assertions of harm through unfair pricing of imported tin mill steel. Had the department acceded to the demands of this protectionist effort, Americans would be facing steep price increases in hundreds of everyday items, especially canned food products that are the staple of millions of families’ dinner table. Given the great extent to which high inflation has weakened most consumers’ spending power over the past three years, a hike in grocery bills solely to fatten the bottom line of Cleveland-Cliffs would have been a devastating blow to the financial well-being of tens of millions of American households.”
CASE initiated a public awareness campaign in the Spring of last year dubbed, “Crush the Can Tax,” and led a coalition effort of over two dozen free-market organizations that made a direct appeal to the Commerce Department last August to reject tariff increases. Their statement continued:
“And as economic studies and past history has proven, the proposed tariff increases would have significantly driven up costs on manufacturing and packaging companies, killing thousands of jobs along the way.
“Thankfully, Commerce did its due diligence and made the right determination by rejecting outright higher import duties for four of the targeted countries, however we believe the incremental tariff increases placed on South Korea (2.69%), Germany (6.88%), and Canada (5.27%) are not justified by facts. Though we maintain hope that the International Trade Commission will reverse these increases when it votes on the matter in February, this ruling is a resounding and crushing rejection of Cleveland-Cliffs’ outlandish efforts to rig the market in its favor. It is encouraging today to see that sound judgment has prevailed over corporate greed, resulting in some much needed good news for U.S. consumers, businesses, and workers.”
