US lifts steel tariffs, but beefs up monitoring program

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, December 05, 2003

US lifts steel tariffs, but beefs up monitoring program

US President George W. Bush lifted Thursday the controversial steel tariffs, but announced a beefed-up monitoring program to prevent a surge of steel import.

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US President George W. Bush lifted Thursday the controversial steel tariffs, but announced a beefed-up monitoring program to prevent a surge of steel import.

"These safeguard measures have now achieved their purpose, and as a result of changed economic circumstances, it is time to lift them," Bush said in a statement.

But to ease the impact on the US steel industry and to avoid more criticism from the steel workers, Bush said he was continuing early reporting requirements that had been imposed when the tariffs were levied in 2002 to detect any big influx of steel into the country.

The reporting program includes requirements of import-licenses and anti-dumping measures, according to a local media report.

The Bush administration imposed the tariffs, from 8 percent to 30 percent on certain kinds of imported steel in March 2002 through March 2005, to give the troubled domestic steel industry a chance to restructure.

But the decision angered other countries and many expressed their disappointment that the US government is using protectionist measures to solve its domestic economic problem.

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