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December 01, 2003

The Right Move, 20 Months Late

After 20 months and roughly $400,000 per job, the Bush Administration is finally going to drop the steel tariffs in response to the WTO's ruling that they were illegal. The Administration never should have imposed such ridiculous tariffs, as they've done far more to hurt the economy than to help it over the past two years, so it's hard to give them much credit for doing the right thing when they've worked so hard to do the wrong thing for so long. For an administration that claims to be devoted to the benefits of free trade, this President has a very strange way of showing it. If only he'd step up to the plate and tear down a few other trade barriers while he's at it, because right now President Bush's credentials as a free trader are pretty close to zero.