In a letter to Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren says the exemption process for relief from steel tariffs is flawed, Kallanish reports.

“I write to express grave concern that the majority of the first batch of exemptions your Department has issued from the Trump Administration's steel tariffs have gone to subsidiaries of foreign-owned companies - even though these tariffs are purportedly in place to protect American companies,” Warren’s letter reads.

“You appear to be implementing the tariff exemption program in a way that undermines American steel producers - by allowing large tariff-free imports of foreign steel - and harms American-owned steel-dependent companies instead of improving their competitive advantage over companies headquartered in China and other foreign countries,” she continues.

An analysis by Warren’s staff reveals that over 80% of 909 waiver requests, approved during the first 30-days of the process, were granted to companies headquartered in foreign countries. Only 20% of tariff waivers are granted to US-owned companies.

Approximately 52% of approved steel tariff waivers went to subsidiaries of companies headquartered in Japan. More than 25% of all steel tariff waivers approvals went to Chinese-headquartered companies, requests by American companies were granted only about 25% of the time.

The Commerce Department replid saying Warren's analysis "...betrays a lack of understanding of the exclusion process, which was put in place to supply domestic ceonsumers with steel that could not or would not be produced here in the United States or in an exempted country."