Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., discusses the trade war with China and Democrats' 'ideological commitment.'
My family's can company, Independent Can, has survived the Great Depression, the Great Recession, two world wars, and 16 presidential administrations. But now, an Ohio steel conglomerate could threaten that legacy of success. and would increase the price of canned goods across the country. The Biden administration is considering a proposal to impose tariffs of up to nearly 300% on imported tinplate steel.
How did we get here? Ohio-based steel giant Cleveland-Cliffs recently petitioned the U.S. International Trade Commission to impose tariffs of up to nearly 300% on imported tinplate steel. Tinplate is used to make cans for a huge range of goods, from soup to paint cans to bug spray. My company specializes in custom and decorative products – from the popcorn and cookie tins popular at Christmastime to cans full of coffee beans at cafes.
Cleveland-Cliffs claims that eight countries are flooding the U.S. market with low-cost tinplate steel – which it would have us believe is some sort of national security threat. The eight countries on that list are Canada, China, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, and Great Britain. Seven of those are U.S. allies. The eighth, China, accounts for around 10% of all U.S. tinplate steel imports.