US Steel Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

US Steel - Essay Example The US steel industry justification for its request for protection is loss of jobs of many workers in the steel industry, as far as the workers unions are concerned, due to closure of business or folding up of some steel producers, due to lower import prices of steel products than those locally produced. As to whether the justification is legitimate should be gauged by a declaration of a body authorized by law to make determination. As far as the Bush administration is concerned, it may have believed that the justification was legitimate when it decided to self initiate Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974. Section 201 is the law for the protection of domestic industry in addition to the antidumping and countervailing duty laws. Said law operates not on proof of unfair trade practices but by ITC determinations that the volume of a particular import constituted a substantial cause of threat of serious injury to a domestic industry. The president can impose a temporary import relief without violating the rules of the World Trade Organization and after initiating, in a give industry, the case will go straight to the ITC, which rules on the case and, if positive, will make recommendation to the President, who then has 60 days to come up with a remedy. The remedy could be no action at al l, a tariff, a quota, a tariff-rate quota or some form of trade adjustment assistance. The legitimacy as believed by the President is questioned by domestic steel consumers and free trade advocates, who claims that the tariffs were blatantly protectionist, and could damage US steel-using industries more than they would help producers, and were adopted for purely political reasons, such a gaining support prior to the November midterm elections, and positioning Bush for the 2004 presidential election [FN3]. Gerald O’ Dricoll, director of the Heritage Foundations’ Center for International Trade and Economic commented on the Bush administration self-initiating Section