STEEL’S POLITICAL FORCE FIELD: No matter who wins the upcoming presidential election, the U.S. steel industry is likely to enjoy continued protection because of its historical importance in swing states like Pennsylvania. U.S. steel manufacturers got a boost under both the Trump and Biden administrations’ embrace of protectionist trade policies — which both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have suggested they’d maintain as they seek to woo blue-collar Rust Belt voters. Those policies include, most notably, the 25 percent tariffs on foreign steel imports that Trump imposed in 2018 and that his successor, Joe Biden, kept largely in place. “I think no matter who’s president, the tariffs are here to stay,” said Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a nonpartisan group funded primarily by steel companies and the United Steelworkers union. “I don’t think there’s a question about that.” The candidates’ alignment on steel serves as a reminder that, for all the dramatic differences between them, they are unified on the need to promote domestic manufacturing. It also underscores the enduring political power of steelmakers. By the numbers: The sector that U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai has called “the backbone of the modern economy” employs only about 143,000 to 370,000 people, depending how you define the parameters, out of a total U.S. workforce of nearly 160 million. But it looms larger in the national imagination, where steel is closely associated with manufacturing and military might. The steel industry also has historical and cultural resonance in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Michigan — and, to some degree, in Wisconsin. That’s three of the seven key states whose Electoral College votes are expected to determine whether Trump or Harris is in the White House next year. The attention both presidential contenders are paying to the U.S. steel industry is par for the course in presidential politics, said Clark Packard, a research fellow at the free-market Cato Institute’s Center for Trade Policy Studies. “I think over history you could argue that the steel and iron industries have basically had a stranglehold on U.S. trade policy,” with the highly-protected sugar sector possibly running a close second, Packard said. Not over: Before the end of his term, Biden is considering creating a new subsidy program to stimulate more shipbuilding in the United States and boost U.S. steel demand. Doug has more here.
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