MSCI issues statement on steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico

M. Robert Weidner III, president/CEO of the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI), Rolling Meadows, Ill., has issued the following statement regarding President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum products from Canada and Mexico:

“As a North American trade association representing metals companies, MSCI believes U.S., Canadian, and Mexican officials should continue discussions with a sense of urgency to update NAFTA and strengthen our ties to our NAFTA trading partners. The focus of the Section 232 penalties should be nonmarket economies like China that subsidize their steel and aluminum producers and that routinely circumvent international law. From the start of the administration’s Section 232 investigations, MSCI has argued these penalties should be targeted toward nonmarket systems.

“As MSCI explained in its NAFTA testimony last year, NAFTA has positively impacted the manufacturing sectors in all three nations, fostering a $1 trillion annual trading relationship that is beneficial to both businesses and consumers. The U.S.’s allies in Canada and Mexico are good, reliable trading partners and are not the cause of global steel and aluminum oversupply. We hope through ongoing NAFTA modernization talks, negotiators can strengthen this relationship and reach a speedy resolution on the Section 232 penalties.”

In steel 232 comments submitted to the U.S. Commerce Department on May 31, 2017, and in aluminum 232 comments submitted on June 23, 2017, MSCI asked the Trump administration to take strong action to help the entire U.S. steel and aluminum supply chains while exempting the U.S.’s North American trading partners from any proposed Section 232 penalties.