America’s cross-border tax could have ‘profound’ consequences, warns ISRI

United States – It is ‘critical’ for the US Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) to educate newcomers within the Trump administration and the US Congress about the scrap industry or there could be serious repercussions for the sector, warns ISRI’s chief lobbyist William Johnson in the latest edition of ‘Scrap’ magazine.

‘The EPA, for example, affects our industry in how it defines and regulates solid wastes and recyclables, so it’s up to us to make sure the agency understands the differences between those materials,’ he writes. ‘We also need to make sure the new administration knows how US manufacturers use scrap commodities every day as energy-saving substitutes for virgin materials and how scrap commodities are among America’s largest exports, creating US jobs and conserving natural resources here and abroad.’

Specifically, Johnson notes that the US Congress is weighing up a cross-border tax on goods entering the USA which, he says, would ‘harm the free flow across borders of products and raw materials, including scrap’.

And he adds: ‘This tax – which would apply not just to Mexico, but also to Canada, Europe, Asia and South America – could have a profound impact on the scrap processing and consuming industries.’