U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, shown here at a speaking event March 15, said Monday that Ukrainian producers will be given a one-year reprieve from a 25% steel tariff. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
"Today's announcement is a signal to the Ukrainian people that we are committed to helping them thrive in the face of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's aggression, and that their work will create a stronger Ukraine, both today and in the future," Raimondo said in a statement.
The 25% levy was instituted by former President Donald Trump in 2018, along with a 10% tariff on aluminum, after the administration deemed reliance on those foreign metals a national security risk. In the intervening years, the Trump and Biden administrations have softened the duties with a quota system that places a limit on imports that may come into the U.S. before facing the levy.
No such quota will be applied to Ukraine; it joins Australia as the only other country fully exempt from the steel tariff. Ukraine is the 13th-largest steel producer in the world, with about 80% of its yield flowing to various export markets.
Ukrainian officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Russia's invasion, which started Feb. 24, immediately threw a wrench into Ukraine's production, with many facilities shuttered as the conflict gnarled key logistical routes, according to a concurrent analysis from S&P Global.
The Biden administration has faced pressure to soften the duties on Ukraine for some time as Putin presses on with his invasion of the country's key industrial centers.
Several lawmakers, including Sens. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., pushed for a tariff reprieve in a letter to President Joe Biden last month, stressing that the move would signal crucial support for Ukraine, "provide stability and improve the country's long-term economic outlook."
Raimondo's office has now taken that step, coupling it with a bevy of sanctions and export restrictions that the agency said have knocked Russia's overall exports to the U.S. down by 79% in value compared with the same period last year.
On the international front, Commerce's tariff reprieve came a day after leaders of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations issued a statement pledging to continue their collective squeeze on Russia's energy and banking sectors, with a focus on the country's elite class.
"We will continue to impose severe and immediate economic costs on President Putin's regime for this unjustifiable war," the leaders said.
--Editing by Orlando Lorenzo.
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