WASHINGTON – The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) sent a letter to the Treasury Department on Thursday asking Secretary Janet Yellen to take immediate action to prevent Russian and Iranian steel products from entering the U.S.
Congress and President Biden authorized Treasury to impose sanctions on companies operating in steel and other sectors of the Russian and Iranian economies that are considered vital to Russia’s war with Ukraine and Iran’s support for Islamic militant groups like Hezbollah in its battle against Israel. Biden strengthened those authorities to go after Russia in an Executive Order on December 22, 2023.
CPA research published in May shows that steel products originating in Russia and Iran, including those produced by sanctioned companies, appear to be entering the U.S. in significant quantities after being further processed in other countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Oman. These activities give significant revenues to Russian and Iranian industrial materials companies, and are an end around existing sanctions.
In Thursday’s letter to Yellen and Office of Foreign Assets Control Director Bradley Smith, CPA called on Treasury to take immediate action to:
- Ban imports of Russian and Iranian origin steel goods, whether coming from those countries directly or after further processing in another country; and
- Investigate and sanction companies acting as conduits for sanctioned steel companies in Russia and Iran.
CPA noted that the European Union took similar action, effective in October 2024.
CPA CEO Michael Stumo stated, “Our research suggests that Russia and Iran are using countries like UAE, Oman, Thailand, and Vietnam as a ‘back door’ into the U.S. and other markets for their steel. If we are serious about curtailing those countries’ malign activities, we need to close that door. Treasury has the authority to so today and our allies in Europe have already done so.”
CPA Board Chair Zach Mottl said, “Allowing these Russian- and Iranian-origin steel products into our market also is detrimental to the U.S. steel industry, which is essential to our national security, and which employs 143,500 people and supports over one million secondary jobs nationwide. We can’t be building up the Russian and Iranian steel industries while undermining our own; Treasury needs to shut this down now.”
The full report on CPA’s research is available here.
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