Americans Set Import Duty, Steel Association: It's Worrying
By : Ridwan And Aldi Firhand. A | Sunday, March 04 2018 - 18:47 IWST
Steel Illustration
INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta, National steel manufacturer hopes there is peace between the Chinese government and the United States over the plan of US President Donald Trump to impose import duties on steel from Asia.
"We hope there will be peace among them, it will affect Indonesia," said Purwono Widodo, Chairman of Cluster of Flat Product Association of Iron and Steel Indonesia (IISIA) Purwono Widodo in Jakarta yesterday.
He said, now China's steel exports to America is very high. "Imagine that China's steel exports to the United States are very great, but if it does not compromise and stop, where else would it be exported to ASEAN," he explained.
According to him, currently China's steel exports to Asean countries are declining as export allocations are cut to meet domestic demand. In addition, the closure of China's non-environmentally friendly steel mills also affected the decline in export allocations.
"Their exports to Asean are declining, if now in America stopped by President Trump with high import duty, they will surely give their allocation to Asean one of Indonesia," said Purwono.
Purwono is worried if the communication between China and Uncle Sam's country related to steel import can not be realized. "It's terrible and worrying that the allocation of imported steel from China will definitely increase significantly," he said.
Purwono hopes there will be good communication between the government of China and the United States to overcome the surge of imported steel into the Asean countries.
Meanwhile, quoted by Reuters, some senior US steel and aluminum producers were summoned to the White House on Thursday tomorrow and it is estimated that the summons is related to import restrictions. US President Donald Trump has previously pledged to seek steps to protect the domestic industry by pressing imports of steel and aluminum.
One of Trump's policy options is the imposition of import duty for steel and aluminum imports from China and other Asian countries. The amount of import duty for both commodities is estimated to be at 24%.
Trump has a deadline to announce its decision on restrictions on steel imports until April 11, 2018 and restrictions on imports of aluminum until April 20, 2018.
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