Vox: Exclusive: Sen. Warren asks for investigation of Trump administration’s “alarming” steel tariff exemptions

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is accusing the Trump administration of rigging its trade wars. 

 On Wednesday, the Massachusetts Democrat asked the Commerce Department’s inspector general to investigate the agency’s process of granting and rejecting exemptions to the steep tariffs Trump placed on imported steel and aluminum products in March. She said the agency has made “troubling” decisions, such as granting relief to the US subsidiary of a sanctioned Russian company.

Thousands of US-based companies have asked the administration to give them a special break from the hefty 25 percent tariff on imported steel and the 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum. The tariffs were supposed to protect the US steel industry from foreign competition, as a matter of national security. But following fierce backlash from US businesses that buy steel, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross agreed to waive the tariffs if companies could show that the steel wasn’t readily available in the US, or if it didn’t threaten America’s national security.

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