Steel Summit: Free and Fair Trade

Steel Market Update asked four panelists at the 2018 Steel Summit to define free and fair trade and offer some solutions to what most in the industry consider unfairly traded steel imports.

Philip Bell, president of the Steel Manufacturers Association representing North American EAF steel producers, said there are five components of free and fair trade. Free and fair trade is rules-based and grounded in free market principles; involves open markets that make people want to trade with each other; opposes state ownership and market-distorting subsidies; recognizes the right to use, when necessary, trade remedies and laws to address illegal and unfair trade practices; and includes an inherent right for a country to defend its trade laws.