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Trade
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2000-06-16 19:53:00-04
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Foreign Steel Producers strike back at US
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Report cites protected, overpriced market, Clinton administration to release its own report
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Foreign steel producers, many of them Asian, such as Japan, South Korea and Thailand, released a report prepared by their attorneys which alleges that US trade policies are protectionist and have cost consumers up to US$150 billion over the last thirty years. Major steel-producing countries, among them Asian nations such as South Korea, Japan and Thailand, have long protested American efforts to stem the flow of cheap imports. On its part, the Clinton administration says that protective measures are needed to prevent dumping of steel at below fair market value. The report, prepared by law firm, Wilkie Farr & Gallagher, claims that US steel makers have benefited from more than $21 billion in federal, state and local subsidies over 30 years. Since the late 1960s, the study says, an assortment of US trade restraints and price quotas have created a 'protected, overpriced US steel market' that has cost American consumers an estimated $90 billion to $150 billion. In response, US Commerce Under Secretary for International Trade Robert LaRussa, who called the study 'totally ridiculous and absurd.' The upcoming administration report will show how US markets remained open despite a flood of imports from many countries, including Japan.
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