This seems to be a pretty big deal. I can understand the desire for tariffs but I am against them personally. Our steel industry operates on 1920's technology and is inefficient. They must get with the game like every other industry has in the past couple decades.

What say you?

I live in the ohio valley - tri state OH/WV/PA
area and this is a very big deal for our local economy. I know and know of many people who depend on the steel industry. I don't know as much about the steel industry as some but my business is in the construction field and many of our customers have some kind of connection with the steel companies. So this *will* effect me also.

-brick

I walked past thousands of protesting steel workers last week on the elipse.  They were chanting something like 40% for 4 more years.  ???

The tariffs are a big vote-getting sham. They are meaningless. Why? Because all this does is make foreign steel get imported into Mexico, re-labeled and shipped tariff-free into the States. How? NAFTA.
This tafiff will do wonders for the employment of Mexican Longshoremen.(at least they'll stay in Mexico)

Any idea how many steel factories and entire companies have gone under in the past three decades? I think most of the inefficient ones are gone and we have a lot of these nucor like companies.

The rest of the world produces far more than they have a clue what to do with. Where does it all go? We are the world's dumping ground. During the cold war we were supporting our allies this way, and after it's end the Russians and Chinese have added to supply heading our way.

There was a quote on CNN of some EU official.

It went something like: "If America raises the tariffs, then all the extra steel will come to Europe, and that will hurt our steel factories."

Well, duh! Why do you think we were increasing the tariff?

Av.

I just started a wrought iron furniture buisness last month. This can't be good for me.

What do you want to bet that the same steel workers who have jobs now because Bush increased the steel tariffs will still tow the communist labor union line come 2004!?  

I don't see it doing much good.  The unions will inevitably use the newfound job stability to scream for more pay and the companies will go out of business.

US steel is dead, it has been for 30 years.  Thank your local union.

The same goes for Canada.

If I were a gambling man, I'd lay odds that protectionist tariffs would [i]increase[/i] unionism, not decrease it.  Since protectionism, by definition, insulates the industry against foreign competition, there will be fewer incentives for the industry to fight against unionism.

Remember your economic principles: Protectionist tariffs slow economic growth.

Regardless of one's feelings regarding unions and the steel industry, you have to admit it's not very smart for a nation to import ALL it's strategic materials. I'd hate to see China have us by the balls in regards to steel as we had Japan in regards to oil prior to WWII. Some level of protectionism is necessary and can be a good thing.

The state of the U.S. steel industry has nothing to do with the unions.  Not a damn thing.
There is a huge surplus of cheap steel around the world.  Both from scrap and hot rolled.  Most of the remaining steel companies are not using 1920's technology, they are modern and some of the most efficient in the world.
The tariffs are a gimmick to appease the far right wingers (protectionists) and a lot of working class that the Republicans can't afford to lose right before an election.
The tariffs are poorly targeted, and very short sighted.  In a few years the U.S. steel companies will still be faced with the same oversupply problem and the country will have been suffering from a protracted trade war.  Our economy will suffer.
The simple fact remains that all the industrialized countries in the world could stop producing steel today and we would have enough steel (both recycled and hot rolled that is still unused) to last for decades.
That means we don't need all those steel mills and steel workers.  
Instead of just laying of all the workers and closing all the plants, why not convert them to recycling plants or other uses.
Why not impose stiff tariffs on only hot rolled, but not recycled steel?  I think that would protect the workers( for a little while) and still provide industry with all the cheap steel they can use.
It will never happen.  It's much easier for our "leaders" to just use protectionism to appease the voters and to hell with our trade agreements.  We always seem to chose to violate our own treaties, to appease a special interest  group.
We hurt our own economy and we will never know how many jobs were lost because of the banana wars.  Just to appease chicita ( I don't care how to spell "cheater" bananas).  We lost in the end.  Because we were wrong.  But chicita made a few bucks, and bribes, I mean contributions were made to the right politicians and the media never mentions it.
Same thing will happen with the steel tariff.  We'll lose in the WTO court, but in the mean time our economy will suffer, we will lose real jobs(reduced trade will kill more jobs than cheap steel), but some insiders will get to make a few bucks, and the republicans will hold on to a few more seats in congress.
What is more important to America?

A tariff is the same thing as a tax. The only difference is the money goes to companies instead of the gov.

Why does the American steel industry have such a hard time competing with foreign steel ? I think either it is not managed well or union wages are to high. Or a combination of both. Probably both.