The President's Steel Program included multilateral negotiations to eliminate market-distorting subsidies and inefficient excess capacity in the steel industry. These negotiations have begun at the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Representatives of more than 30 governments met in Paris in high-level multilateral steel discussions aimed at pursuing a lasting global solution to the problems in international steel trade. They agreed upon the following:
There is a world steel crisis.
Inefficient or excess steel capacity is a significant problem.
Subsidies and other steel market-distorting practices remain a major problem.
There is no "one-size-fits-all" approach to defining "inefficient" or "excess" steel capacity.
Each government will go back and consult with its own steel industry to discuss the steel capacity situation. Governments will meet again in mid-December to discuss the outcome of these consultations.
Governments will consider how the timeliness and accuracy of steel data can be improved.
A multilateral working group will be set up to identify and examine steel industry "exit costs."
Governments will consider policies to facilitate the reduction or closure of inefficient facilities through market forces.
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