US, EU strike deal on Trump-era steel tariffs

ROME — President Biden said Sunday a new U.S. and European Union trade agreement would crack down on “dirty steel” that produces carbon emissions that are blamed for climate change and also patch up a trans-Atlantic rift over Trump-era steel and aluminum tariffs.

Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a joint appearance during the Group of 20 summit that the agreement represented a renewed partnership on economic and environmental matters. The deal resolving the trade dispute would address the excess capacity that can distort the steel market and create a framework for reducing the carbon-intensity of steel and aluminum production that contributes to the warming of the earth.

The U.S. president said “dirty steel” made in China would be restricted from accessing their markets, though all like-minded economies could participate in the agreement.

“By harnessing our diplomatic and economic power, we can reject the false idea that we can’t grow our economy and support American workers while tackling the climate crisis,” Biden said, who has been pushing the U.S. to aggressively address the threat posed by climate change.

“It will be a major step forward in achieving climate neutrality and it will ensure a level playing field,” Von der Leyen said, adding that the agreement was part of a renewed, forward-looking agenda with the U.S.

The easing of the tariffs is a key step in unwinding one of former President Donald Trump’s legacies as president as Biden has tried to reset U.S. relations with Europe.

In return for Europe dropping its retaliatory tariffs, the U.S. would also ensure “that all steel entering the U.S. via Europe is produced entirely in Europe,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.

The Trump administration had placed taxes on EU steel and aluminum in 2018, claiming the foreign products made by American allies were a threat to U.S. national security.

Europeans and other allies were outraged by Trump’s use of the Article 232 section of U.S. trade law to justify the tariffs, leading many to impose counter-tariffs on U.S.-made motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter, jeans and hundreds of other items.

The back-and-forth measures hurt European producers and raised steel costs for American companies. The tariffs also did not achieve Trump’s stated goal of creating jobs at steel mills. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that jobs in the manufacturing of primary metals did rise slightly, to as much as 389,100 in 2019. But mills shed workers during the pandemic, and employment in the sector is roughly half of what it was in 1990.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3w3IOhV