The U.S. and Japan announced a deal on Monday to remove Trump-era tariffs from about 1.25 million tons a year of Japanese steel imports, after Washington granted similar access to European Union steelmakers last year.
The new agreement, which excludes aluminum, will take effect on April 1, U.S. officials said, and required Japan to take “concrete steps” to tackle global steel overcapacity, largely concentrated in China.
Japan will begin implementing “appropriate domestic measures, such as anti-dumping, countervailing duties and safeguard measures or other measures with at least equivalent effect” within six months to establish more market-oriented conditions for steel, the joint statement said.
The agreement, like the EU steel-aluminum deal reached in October, requires steel imports from Japan to be produced entirely in the country for duty-free access, a standard dubbed “melting and pouring” to reduce the risk aversion of Chinese steel U.S. tariffs.
“This is a step towards a solution … but we will continue to strongly urge the U.S. to fully remove tariffs in a manner consistent with WTO rules,” Japan’s Industry Minister Koichi Hagida said on Tuesday.
A ministry official said the aluminum exclusion reflected the U.S. position, not a Japanese request.
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