Aldonas: Section 232 Recommendations 'Ill-Served' President Trump

Grant Aldonas believes Wilbur Ross “ill-served the president” when he released Section 232 recommendations that don’t address the real issues: curbing global steel overcapacity and dealing with Chinese illegal business practices. A keynote speaker at this year’s Port of Tampa Steel Conference, Aldonas should know what he is talking about. As a former Undersecretary of Commerce, he oversaw steel trade policy from 2001-2005. He is now a consultant and Principal Managing Director of Split Rock International.

For those of you not around the industry during 2001-2005, they were among steel’s most turbulent years. Almost half of the industry was in bankruptcy. Wilbur Ross, as a billionaire investor before he became a politician, came along and bought the distressed assets that became the International Steel Group, which he later sold to Mittal. And there were many trade initiatives taken to help the industry.