Week in Review: Norway’s WTO Dispute, the Copper Market and Trade Tensions

• Rio Tinto and Minmetals entered into a joint venture for mineral exploration in China.
• Norway initiated a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute complaint over the U.S.’s steel and aluminum tariffs.
• A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce condemned the U.S.’s recent announcements on the potential imposition of hundreds of billions of dollars in additional tariffs on Chinese goods.
• MetalMiner’s Stuart Burns took a look at the copper market’s journey so far this calendar year.
• The Department of Commerce initiated anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations of imports of steel propane cylinders.
• In a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce voiced its support for the government’s response to recent U.S. trade actions.
• Burns checks in on Glencore and its operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• The Department of Commerce made an affirmative preliminary ruling in its anti-dumping probe of common alloy aluminum sheet imports from China.
• The European Union announced new tariffs on U.S. goods, which went into effect today. The list of goods included steel and aluminum products, orange juice, motorcycles and bourbon, among other items.
• Are the U.S. and China in a trade war? Burns argues things might look a little better on the trade front by the end of the year.
• During a hearing Wednesday morning, the Senate Finance Committee grilled Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on the administration’s current and proposed trade actions.

MetalMiner’s Annual Outlook provides 2018 buying strategies for carbon steel