No Set Benchmark for Ending Section 232 Tariffs on Iron and Steel, Commerce Official Says

ATLANTA -- The Trump administration is not operating off a set benchmark for when to lift Section 232 tariffs on iron and steel products, and any decision to end the duties is at the discretion of the president himself, said Earl Comstock, director of the Commerce Department’s Office of Policy and Strategic Planning, at CBP's 2018 Trade Symposium on Aug. 14. Though Commerce in its Section 232 report set a threshold of 80 percent steel industry capacity utilization to judge the sector’s health, President Donald Trump in imposing the tariffs was “very careful to say that we’re not looking at a specific thing,” Comstock said. “We’re not going to be measuring and say when it hits 80 percent, boom, everything disappears,” he said. The capacity utilization rate could be lower or higher. “It’s really up to the president to make that determination,” considering the overall health of the industry and its ability to stand on its own, as well as whether arrangements have been reached with other countries to address issues such as overcapacity, Comstock said.