When Donald Trump won the White House, the sprawling aluminum smelter that hugs ...
) laid off 163 workers in Illinois and Iowa as the trade war drove up its costs and at the same time hurt demand for tractors from farmers facing diminished exports.
The Obama administration filed a case with the World Trade Organization during its last week in office, accusing China of unfairly subsidizing its aluminum industry and harming domestic producers like Century. But by then, a new wind of protection was blowing in Washington, and Century saw the chance to tie its case closely to other basic industries seeking tariffs, particularly steel.
A spokesman for the Commerce Department confirmed that steel was a far bigger target for their investigation into the case for tariffs on imported metals. “But in terms of fragility of the industry, relatively speaking, aluminum was in a worse position than steel,” said the spokesman, given the low capacity utilization.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross famously downplayed concerns about metal tariffs hurting consumers by going on CNBC holding a can of Campbell’s soup and saying the tax would barely register in the cost of such goods. Ross last year attended a ribbon-cutting at the gritty, smoke-filled Hawesville plant, where he reassured workers that the protection would not be fleeting.
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