Yahoo! News
Responding to pleas from lawmakers and the steel industry, the Commerce Department (news – web sites) announced Wednesday it will extend a program that monitors how much foreign steel is imported into the United States.
The Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis System was established in 2003 as part of President Bush (news – web sites)’s program that imposed tariffs on low-priced steel imports. At the time, the imports were flooding the market and contributing to the industry’s financial woes.
The tariffs ended last year, but Bush left the steel monitoring program in place. It was to expire March 20.