Steel tariffs generate boycott threat

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Owners of small manufacturing companies who generally vote Republican but have been hurt by U.S. steel tariffs threatened Monday to stay home on Election Day 2004 rather than vote to re-elect President Bush.
The comment from an industry organization followed a review of the tariffs' impact, released Friday by the U.S. International Trade Commission, that concluded the slumping economy appears to have hurt steel consumers as much as the steep Bush-ordered sanctions did.
Presidential advisers are split over whether to keep the tariffs until they expire in March 2005 or eliminate them now, halfway through the three-year safeguard program.
"Many of these businessmen and women -- small businesses around the country -- are the core of the Republican base," said Lewis Leibowitz, an attorney for the Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition. "The Republican base needs to be strong in the minds of the political advisers. And there's a concern that people will stay home [in 2004] if the president continues with the tariffs, which really are at odds with his whole political philosophy."
Bush imposed the tariffs in March 2002 to shield the domestic industry from foreign competition as it regrouped and consolidated.