Ingraham Presses Trump to Get Tough on Chinese Steel Dumping

Laura Ingraham, editor-in-chief of LifeZette, grilled President Donald Trump on Monday about the issue of the Chinese dumping steel into the United States.

Trump, already pressed on Monday by conservative-leaning outlets about Chinese trade and currency issues, said he will watch China carefully and noted that dumped aluminum is also a problem for U.S. manufacturers.

“We tried globalization and let it all ride on the WTO, and we got Donald Trump as the president. So we tried 20 years of this, we tried it.”

“Aluminum is as bad as steel,” said Trump.

But for now, don’t expect action against China, Trump told the audience. Trump reminded the members of conservative media present that he wrote “The Art of the Deal,” and he couldn’t be expected to slap China with trade-violation or currency-manipulation labels if he expected Chinese help on the thorniest of issues: North Korea.

Trump already told China earlier this month that he would not label the nation a currency manipulator.

But Ingraham wanted to know if Trump would employ another tactic: Stopping China from becoming a “market economy” designee.

China gained entry into the World Trade Organization 15 years ago in December. But entry into the WTO comes with conditions. For one, as Ingraham noted, more advantageous trade policies for China can be reached if the U.S. Commerce Department allows China to be labeled a market economy.

Trump and Ingraham engaged in the spirited and friendly back-and-forth on Monday at the reception for journalists from conservative media outlets, held in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Initially, the reception was said to be off the record, but Trump began to take questions and his staff later declared the meeting to be on the record.

A market designation would affirm that China operates on market principles of cost or pricing structures. Allowing China to be a “market economy” would mean that sales by the exporting country reflect fair value. It also would mean that the Commerce Department can take that into consideration when investigating potential trade remedies against Chinese manufacturers, for selling products in the U.S. at prices lower than what they sell for in China, according to the industry coalition Manufacturers for Trade Enforcement.

China claims it deserves the status for reaching its 15th year in the WTO, using a legal claim in WTO rules. But Trump did not want to focus on China. Instead, he made big news when he turned his attention to Canada.

Trump surprised the attendees by announcing trade actions against the nation’s northern neighbor. Trump told the assembled media figures that he was imposing at least a 20 percent tariff on softwood lumber imported from Canada — an announcement later confirmed and expanded on by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross at a press briefing Tuesday.

Canada exports about $5 billion a year in softwood lumber to the United States, mainly for new homes. The United States has long complained that Canada allows its provinces to sell lumber from public lands at discount prices.

Trump complained about the North American Free Trade Agreement and also how unfair Canada has been on dairy issues.

Trump said the U.S. market will turn to its own producers for future needs.

“It means we’re going to start doing lumber in our country, it’s going to mean that farmers are going to start selling milk in our country,” Trump said.

But Trump, still speaking with Ingraham, did not point to actions his administration may take against Chinese dumping.

“I want to see what China is doing,” said Trump.

The Trump concessions could come at a cost, especially to U.S. steel workers. China overproduces steel and aluminum, and then “dumps” them into the United States at lower-than-market prices. The practice is seen as a predatory practice designed to undercut and perhaps close down competing U.S. factories.

On Tuesday night on Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier,” Ingraham continued to make the case for fairness for U.S. steelworkers.

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“What I think Donald Trump campaigned on, and what I assume he will do, is on issues like cold-rolled steel,” Ingraham said. “Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, most presidents invoked some type of temporary tariff to make the marketplace efficient. It is wildly distorted now. We had a 20 percent increase in the dumping of cheap steel in the United States.”

Indeed, MetalMiners magazine noted that 55 percent of all 2014 dumping complaints were related to China.

“In the first three months of this year from the previous year, we had I think 18 out of the top 20 steel manufacturers in the world were American. Now, I think it is about three,” Ingraham told panel, advocating that Trump crack down on China. “So there are ancillary effects. We tried globalization and let it all ride on the WTO, and we got Donald Trump as the president. So we tried 20 years of [globalization], we tried it.”