From the BBC:
EU leaders have a "gun held to their head" over the threat of US tariffs on steel imports, the head of trade body UK Steel has warned. Gareth Stace said the EU needed to impose safeguards to curb Chinese steel once destined for the US that will now be heading to Europe...
Mr Stace said US tariffs would be "purely protectionist... The Trump administration says protecting America's steel and aluminium producers is a matter of national security. What President Trump is proposing to do here is not free trade and it's against WTO rules," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme...
Mr Stace admitted that there was a problem of global over-capacity in the steel industry, but said most of that was in China. About 20 million tonnes of Chinese steel would need to "find a new home to go to and, because we are a free and open market here in the UK/the EU, it'll come here, we believe, and therefore further damage our sector - not only from the direct impact of tariffs in the US but the surge of steel coming here", he said.
Does the man not listen to himself? He appears to be arguing against and for tariffs at the same time. As to over-capacity, who's to say that the over-capacity is 'in China'?? The Chinese would have a better argument that it is the higher cost producers in Europe who are the over-capacity.
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It appears to be agreed across the board* that Trump's tariffs are A Bad Thing, which they are IMHO. Can these people now apply the same logic to the 20% tariff which the UK government imposes on most ostensibly free-market transactions, even where both supplier and customer are within the UK?
* I do have the impression that if a left-wing government of a developing country were to impose such tariffs, a lot of the same people would fully support them.
Thursday, 7 June 2018
Many a crocodile tear shed over Trump's steel tariffs.
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6 comments:
It's all bollocks anyway. Presumably the EU nations already buy steel from China, because its already cheaper than the home-produced stuff. It seems very unlikely EU customers buy the home-produced steel when they do because they simply can't get hold of Chinese steel, thus, while the Chinese might sell more steel into the EU if they drop their prices, it is unlikely to affect the sales of EU produced steel, because everyone who is buying EU steel is already doing so despite the opportunity to buy cheaper from China.
B: " It seems very unlikely EU customers buy the home-produced steel when they do because they simply can't get hold of Chinese steel"
I'm sure the EU imposes quotas on Chinese steel, so there will be cases where people "simply can't get hold of Chinese steel". But also apparently - and this might be propaganda - Chinese steel is not such good quality.
MW. In my experience parts made by Chinese companies from Chinese steel are inferior. However, this is probably partly a result of bad supervision and the Chinese not understanding the nature of a 'contract'. e.g. the steering boxes on black cabs, You will recall that these failed and hence broke the cab manufacturer. But from what I have been able to find out the steering box maker changed the spec. of the steel from that which had been specified without telling the London Can Co. And as China does not really have contract law...
Also if you buy a pattern part gear lever (as the historic racing fraternity does) they break. They are definitely made of low grade material.
L, ta for anecdotal. Maybe it's not just a myth.
"I'm sure the EU imposes quotas on Chinese steel, so there will be cases where people "simply can't get hold of Chinese steel"."
If the EU already imposes quotas, wtf are they worrying about?
MW,L, Yes, I have heard that about Chinese steel, too (and Chinese copper), but not all applications need the best grade steel and those that do can use European steel.
B, exactly, hence the post title "crocodile tears".
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