The proposed order would direct Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to launch an investigation under a provision of U.S. trade law. | Getty Trump plans executive order on steel imports

The Commerce Department late Wednesday initiated an investigation to determine whether steel imports into the U.S. should be blocked on national security grounds, an administration official said.

President Donald Trump will sign a memorandum today directing the department to conduct a speedy investigation and come back with recommendations, the official said.


A number of steel industry executives have been invited to the White House for an event with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Representatives from ArcelorMittal, Nucor, U.S. Steel, AK Steel and Timken are expected, along with the president of the United Steelworkers union. China’s excess capacity to produce steel is seen as a long-term threat to the U.S. steel industry’s viability, but the investigation will not single out any particular country. It also will look broadly at overall steel imports rather than individual steel products, the official said.

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The order will call for the investigation under a provision of U.S. trade law that requires the commerce secretary to report to the president within 270 days whether a certain product is being imported in sufficient quantities or under such circumstances that it threatens to impair national security.

The president then has 90 days to decide whether to “adjust" imports or take some other non-trade related action.

The United States imported about 30 million metric tons of steel in 2016, down from 35 million in 2015, for use in a variety of sectors including buildings, bridges, water and sewage plants, and oil and natural gas production. Major foreign suppliers include Canada, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico, Japan and Germany.

China is relatively far down on the list because of a number of U.S. countervailing and anti-dumping duty orders already in place on its exports.