Before we head into the holiday weekend, let’s take one last look at the week that was:

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• It was a busy week for the Department of Commerce, which issued a ruling on Chinese cast iron soil pipe fittings.
• Prior to the approval of the GOP tax bill, our Stuart Burns wrote about Europeans’ reactions to the tax reform discussion in the U.S.
• The electric vehicle industry is on the rise in India, Sohrab Darabshaw writes.
• The Fed increased interest rates recently, but how is the U.S. dollar doing? Our Irene Martinez Canorea wrote about trends in the U.S. dollar this year.
• What will the surge in electric vehicle interest do for base metals?
• The U.S. and the World Trade Organization are a bit at odds.
• Aluminum’s excellent 2017 has been tempered somewhat by a price pullback of late.
• China recently decided to boost steel products by cutting export taxes, a decision that is sure to frustrate producers around the world already concerned about global oversupply.
• In a second post on the subject, Martinez Canorea expanded on the connection between base metals and electric vehicles.

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