Word: steels
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...deciding against strict import quotas, Reagan turned down the recommendations of the U.S. International Trade Commission. It said in July that the domestic industry was being damaged by imports and urged a five-year program of high tariffs and quotas for such important products as sheet and strip steel, plate and wire. Reagan would have none of it. Quotas, he said, would do more harm than good to the economy and not "be in the national interest," even though they might temporarily save some jobs in steel. Voluntary restraints seemed to be the only workable...
...While steel unions and companies were urging quotas, other interest groups were lobbying against them. Farmers were opposed because they feared foreign governments would retaliate by restricting U.S. agricultural sales. U.S. banks did not want the White House to be too restrictive against steel from Brazil and other developing countries, which need the money from exports to pay interest on debt owed to American banks. Cheaper foreign steel keeps the price of Detroit's cars more competitive with those from Japan, so Detroit's autoworkers have reason to approve Reagan's decision. Major steel users...
Under the program announced last week, U.S. Trade Representative William Brock will begin talks with foreign governments about reducing the inflow of their steel from about 25% of the $30 billion U.S. market to 18½%. That is slightly more than the 15% sought by the industry and its unions. This would be similar to a plan worked out by the Reagan Administration in 1981 that put limits on the number of cars Japanese manufacturers shipped to the U.S. In steel, as in cars, the threat of more restrictive measures by Congress will be a lever in the hands...
Reagan's ruling was a politically astute move in an election year; thousands of votes in such steel-producing states as Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio are likely to be influenced by the decision. Indeed, Bethlehem Steel and the Steelworkers Union had timed their petition to the Trade Commission so that Reagan would be forced to make a decision in the middle of the campaign. In an appeal to Midwestern Rust Bowl voters the day before Reagan's announcement, Walter Mondale had called for the very import quotas the President rejected...
...Steel-industry executives who sought the quotas nonetheless praised Reagan's action. Bethlehem Chairman Donald H. Trautlein called it "an appropriate response." U.S. Steel Chairman David M. Roderick said the President's plan "moves to correct the steel trade program in a comprehensive and enforceable fashion. If fully implemented, it would put 25,000 to 40,000 steelworkers back...