The department has granted just 1 percent of the tariff exemption requests that were challenged by domestic steel producers.
by Eric Boehm
Reason.com
American manufacturers have filed more than 100,000 requests for relief from the Trump administration’s steel tariffs. Take a close look at which requests have been denied, and you’ll glimpse the depth of the cronyism contained in this scheme.
Since June of last year, the Commerce Department has granted just 1 percent of the exemption requests that were challenged by domestic steel producers, according to government data aggregated by researchers at the Mercatus Center. By comparison, the department has granted 70 percent of the exemptions that were not challenged by domestic steelmakers.