Final Thoughts

When we began planning for our 2017 SMU Steel Summit Conference I was actually thinking that I would be able to drop the subject of trade and perhaps work on other issues of “more importance” by the time we reached the end of August 2017. Even with the CORE, hot rolled, cold rolled and cut-to-length plate cases having been finalized in 2016 (CORE, CR, HR) and just last week (CTL Plate) the subject of trade is not fading away. In fact, there is perhaps a different discussion needed than what we had in the past. It is not just about anti-dumping and countervailing duties but about the rights of manufacturing, U.S. consumers and steel producers. The debate this year will be different than what we saw in the past and we are working to bring as many diverse opinions to the conference as possible. We expect to have a four-person panel with Philip Bell, President of the Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) which is an organization representing the interests of the steel mills, Daniel Pearson with the Cato Institute and a former Chairman of the International Trade Commission (ITC) the group of commissioners that determines “final duties” in trade cases and trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz. We are working very hard to bring in a fourth viewpoint that maybe hasn’t been heard before. We will have more details once we get closer to a confirmation of that 4th name.

I only fell for one April Fool’s prank this year but I have to hand it to DoubleDutch (our Events App provider) they had me eating it up on Saturday afternoon… (see article in tonight’s newsletter for more details).