[Ferro-Alloys.com]The US-based Japan Steel Information Center on Thursday welcomed reports that Japan is considering retaliation against the US as a result of the US' 25% tariff on steel imports. Citing unnamed government officials, Japanese media outlets reported Thursday the country may tell the World Trade Organization it believes it has the right to immediately impose tariffs of its own on US goods equivalent to the damage it is suffering as a result of the steel tariffs. 

 

Japan is the only major US ally that did not receive an exemption to the US' 25% tariff on steel imports and 10% tariff on aluminum imports, which took effect March 23. The tariffs follow two Section 232 investigations launched by the Department of Commerce on the effect of steel and aluminum imports on US national security. 

 

"Our industry and our government has tried to persuade the US by reminding them that we are friends, and it has not worked," Jiro Hirokawa, chairman of the Japan Steel Information Center said in a statement. "The EU is preparing retaliation. China is retaliating. The 25% across the board tariff on foreign steel has always been ill advised and naive. Rather than saving American jobs it will destroy many tens of thousands of good, well-paying manufacturing jobs from steel consuming industries. Retaliation from America?s most reliable allies has been predictable and it will ultimately hurt American non-manufacturing industries as well."

 

Hirokawa said steel from Japan has never been a threat to US national security and the high-value added steel produced in Japan cannot be easily replicated by the US domestic industry. 

 

"There is simply no justification for these misguided tariffs to remain on Japanese steel products," he said. "As long as we have not seen the US government listening to our legitimate claim, there is no other way than for the Japanese government to pursue retaliation through the WTO and we trust this action will lead to early, successful settlement".