Letter to the Editor: Writer Sees Paradox in Steelmakers’ Stance

Steel Market Update received the following letter to the editor which was in response to comments made in a recent article by an un-named steel mill executive:

I read your report “U.S. Steelmakers: We’re Not Protectionist” with interest, but also with a little bit of a smile. Since the mid-1960s, the U.S. steel industry has gone to Washington for help against imports. Several quota systems, voluntary restraint agreements, trigger price mechanisms and other measures have been negotiated to protect the U.S. steel industry and allow them to restructure to be able to better compete. And after all that, we’re still importing almost 25 percent of the steel needed in this country as semi-finished products such as slabs and billets. On top of that, they are coming from the same countries the U.S. steel industry accuses of illegally subsidizing.