SMU Survey: Will Trade Suits Hurt or Help the Industry?

Recently, Steel Market Update had a conversation with trade attorney Lewis E. Leibowitz and we spoke about the purpose behind the U.S. trade laws. He told us that the impacted industry, in this case the steel industry, should be using the trade laws in order to get the “breathing room” or time needed in order to improve their processes and competitiveness. The laws were not intended to permanently prevent foreign steel or international products from being freely traded in the United States.

We understand there are differences of opinions as to whether or not the filing of the recent trade suits (and expected hot rolled suit) will actually hurt or help the U.S. steel industry. We posed a couple of questions on the subject to those who participated in last week’s flat rolled steel market questionnaire.