U.S. lifts duties on European steel and aluminum

The U.S. and European Union reached an agreement in late October to allow the resumption of duty-free European steel and aluminum into the U.S.

“(The agreement) will ensure the long-term viability of the American and European steel and aluminum industries and strengthen the transatlantic relationship between the U.S. and EU,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement.

Going forward, Tai said the U.S. and the EU will analyze the volume of steel and aluminum imports from the EU each year, share information and best practices on trade remedies, and ensure that products from non-market economies do not benefit from the arrangement.

Industry reaction

Jim Bair, president and CEO of the U.S. Apple Association, said in a statement that the announcement that the Biden Administration will ease tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union should be congratulated as good news. 

“Hopefully this will be the first step in helping reclaim market share for other U.S. export-dependent farm commodities,” Bair said. “But for most U.S. apples the announcement will have little positive effect since the EU’s unscientific rules against even infinitesimally low residues of modern production compounds lock U.S. growers out of that market. Specifically, the compound used to help prevent storage rot and make those healthy apples available year-round.

Bair said that U.S. apples sampled through the national pesticide residue monitoring program consistently have either no residues or residues far below EPA’s strict tolerances. 

“A child could eat 340 servings of apples every day without effect from pesticide residues,” he said. “The EU’s arbitrary rules deny its own consumers the superior new apple varieties being grown in the United States.:

Bair said he hopes the announcement will mean a similar review of the steel and aluminum tariffs imposed on India and China. Together, the two countries represent the second and sixth-ranked export markets for U.S. apples before the tariffs. 

Total tariffs against U.S. apples are 70% in India and 55% in China, taking a large bite out of the U.S. formerly one-billion-dollar apple export market.”