on global industrial policy (regulation)

[Anthony DCosta <dcosta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

WASHINGTON PRESSES LENDERS TO DENY FOREIGN PRODUCERS.  The US
administration is
pressing international lending agencies, including its won Export-Import
Bank,
to halt any loan that might increase global steel output, reports the
Financial
Times (p.6), noting that US Commerce Secretary Norman Mineta late last
week
urged US Ex-Im Bank President James Harmon to deny a loan to China's Benxi
Iron
and Steel Company, which was seeking financing for a project that would
add
about 1.5 million metric tons of new hot-rolled steel capacity.

The US administration, under pressure from the domestic steel industry and
steelworkers' union, has called for an end to international development
bank
financing of steel projects, the story says.  The US argues that any
additional
steel capacity would contribute to a global glut that has driven steel
prices to
historic lows.  US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers last month urged
World
Bank President James Wolfensohn to declare a moratorium on lending to any
project that would substantially increase steel production capacity, notes
the
story.  The issue was a priority for the outgoing administration, he said.

----------------------
I might add that in the 1970s several US banks were lending money for
steel projects abroad, while most steel companies were divesting from
steel.  NACLA in the 1980s had a great issue on this topic.

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Anthony P. D'Costa
Associate Professor				Ph: (253) 692-4462
Comparative International Development		Fax: (253) 692-5718		
University of Washington			Box Number: 358436
1900 Commerce Street				
Tacoma, WA 98402, USA
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