Supply Chain Research

The new Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, has discussed using ‘self-initiation’ of trade cases (ie not relying on a U.S. complainant) to tackle high imports. A starting point may be older cases that have not cut imports as planned. One example is a case from late 2016 where imports of heavy forged hand tools climbed 18% in November and 15% in December despite the renewal of tariffs. A similar issue can be seen for all hand and power tools which climbed 19% in the fourth quarter, led by a 36% jump in shipments from China and 79% from Japan. The question that remains is whether to only targ...