Mid Continent Steel & Wire welcomes Missouri attorney general amid Section 232 tariff struggles

Mid Continent Steel & Wire Inc., Poplar Bluff, Mo., a producer of steel nails that has reduced its workforce substantially because of soaring costs and cancelled sales resulting from the Section 232 tariffs, welcomed Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley to tour its facility on Aug. 17.

The 25 percent tariffs, which took effect June 1, have raised the price of the raw materials U.S. companies use. Mid Continent pointed out that, by contrast, its competitors in such countries as China, Taiwan, Turkey, and India do not face these increased costs, and their nail exports to the U.S. are not covered by Section 232 tariffs.

Mid Continent now employs fewer than 340 workers, down from about 500 before the tariffs took effect. Temporary workers have been let go, and some permanent workers have left for other jobs and have not been replaced.

"Our company is in trouble, but a solution exists," said George Skarich, Mid Continent's executive vice president for sales. "When President Trump announced that he would impose Section 232 tariffs, he recognized the need for certain exclusions and put a process in place that would minimize undue impact on downstream American industries like ours."

Skarich added, "I've got to believe our situation is the very definition of 'undue impact' the president was preparing for. All of our workers and the families they are supporting—we all continue to hope that the president will use that relief valve for us and grant the exclusions we've applied for so that we can save our company and these jobs."

Mid Continent filed 24 applications to exclude the steel wire used to manufacture its nails from the Section 232 tariffs on June 18. Unless the exclusions are granted soon, the company reports it may have to eliminate as many as 200 more jobs and could shut down.

Attorney General Hawley has publicly supported the company's exclusion applications and, through a spokesperson, told the Washington Post that Mid Continent "makes a good case for an exemption and we have spoken to the White House about it."