Find the best financial services for you at: SMARTFINANCESOLUTIONS.NET - Who was helped by the tariff on steel and who was harmed? Are producers able to avoid paying the tariff? - The U.S. steel industry has been slow to adopt the latest technology and consequently has suffered a long, painful decline for decades—a death from a thousand cuts. From 1997 to 2001, about 30 percent of U.S. steel producers filed for bankruptcy, including Bethlehem Steel and National Steel. During that stretch, 45,000 steel jobs disappeared in the United States, leaving about 180,000 jobs remaining. Imports accounted for 30 percent of the U.S. market, with most of that steel coming from Europe.

Steel leaders turned to the White House for help, arguing that the industry needed a technological tuneup to become more competitive, but needed trade protection during the process. This is a variant of the infant-industry argument. Many of the jobs lost were in rust-belt states -