US steel policy may trigger a global trade conflict

As the White House seeks to turn steel imports into a national security matter, the issue is alienating not only China but also the United States' NATO allies. "They're dumping steel and destroying our steel industry, they've been doing it for decades, and I'm stopping it. It'll stop," US President Donald Trump declared during a recent flight from the US to France. "There are two ways: quotas and tariffs. Maybe I'll do both," he added just days before his administration's first Sino-US Diplomatic and Security Dialogue.

Only days after China's ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai warned Washington on "troubling developments" that could derail the bilateral relationship, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said he would present Trump a range of options to restrict steel imports on national security grounds - even as Europe's NATO leaders were already lobbying against the White House's possible move.

After the meeting between President Xi Jinping and Trump in early April, China and the US announced a 100-Day Action Plan to improve strained trade ties and boost cooperation between the two countries. "This may be ambitious, but it's a big sea change in the pace of discussions," Ross said at the time.