PRESIDENTIAL RACE Kerry criticizes decision to eliminate steel tariffs

The Bush campaign says Kerry doesn't really have a position on steel.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry said Monday the White House should not have scrapped steep tariffs on foreign-made steel last year -- but he would not put them back in place if he is elected.
A spokesman for President Bush's re-election campaign said Kerry's comments highlight his ever-changing position on the controversial trade issue.
The tariffs, imposed in March 2002 to shield beleaguered U.S. steel producers from foreign competition, were declared illegal last summer by the World Trade Organization. The White House pulled down the tariffs in December, halfway through their three-year program, under threat of $2.2 billion in retaliatory sanctions from the European Union.
Kerry, speaking to about 17 reporters from political battleground states on both sides of the matter, said he supported the tariffs because "under the circumstances, it was an important grabbing-air moment."
"I wouldn't re-impose them, but I would have let them play out the way they were promised," he said. "Once you put them in place, people have expectations. ... And if you, all of a sudden, upset that, you're really wreaking havoc in the market."
Response
Bush-Cheney spokesman Kevin Madden said Kerry's "position on steel tariffs is that he doesn't have a position."
"His statements are inconsistent and absent any core policy beliefs on what he would do to help the steel industry," Madden said. "The only thing consistent about John Kerry is his inconsistencies."
Forty-one steel companies nationwide have declared bankruptcy since 1997.
The tariffs were politically popular in the key steel-producing states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio, which account for 46 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the Nov. 2 presidential election. But they angered small businesses that manufacture steel products in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin -- which collectively hold 37 electoral votes.
Kerry said he would seek other ways, under WTO rules, to fight subsidized foreign steel from flooding the U.S. market.