In 2017, shortly after President Trump took office, the
U.S. Department of Commerce considered imposing tariffs on European steel companies it accused of dumping
steel on the U.S. market. An article in the Wall Street Journal
quoted Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross as asserting,
“A healthy steel industry is critical to our economy and
manufacturing base, yet our steel industry today is under
assault from foreign producers that dump and subsidize
their exports.” What is dumping? If the United States
imposes tariffs on imports of steel from Europe, briefly
explain who is likely to gain and who is likely to lose.
Source: Andrea Thomas and Ulrike Dauer, “Germany Hits Back at
U.S. Proposals of Anti-dumping Tariffs on Steel Imports,” Wall Street
Journal, March 31, 2017.