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The initial reaction by steelmen to the proposals was cautious, mostly because they are waiting to see just what floor prices the Administration establishes for imports. A Bethlehem Steel executive asserts that U.S. mills will benefit only "if the reference-price levels are set no more than 5% below the going U.S. price." Andrew Staursky, a spokesman for U.S. Steel, adds that "if the prices are predicated on the costs of the most efficient Japanese unit producing a given product, then they are not going to help much." Early this year Japanese mills were selling in the U.S. at prices that American producers charged averaged 38% below cost; European mills, according to one dumping complaint, sold sheets for as much as 47% below cost.
Wall Street financial analysts are even more dubious. Some believe that the reference prices, will require an unwieldy bureaucracy to administer (Solomon estimates 80 additional inspectors) and will be unenforceable anyway. They are also worried that Government regulation of prices on 20% of the metal used in the U.S. will be a big step toward effective price control over the whole industry.
Steelmen are happier with other parts of the plan. William Verity, chairman of Armco Steel, predicts that "the proposals for faster depreciation and pollution-control write-offs will be warmly received." And an official of Bethlehem—which in the third quarter suffered a loss of $477 million, the largest ever reported by an American company—rather wistfully commented that "anything in the way of tax breaks, quicker write-offs, depreciation, just about anything, will help."