Tariff battle could have impact on uranium mining


Amidst talks of tariffs and Donald Trump’s building trade war, uranium may be the next target. White House officials have been discussing tariffs on uranium from Australia, Canada, Russia, and Kazakhstan among other countries.

The U.S. imports roughly 95 percent of the uranium it needs, but the Trump administration has taken a friendly stance toward uranium companies. The administration slashed several national monuments, revealing new uranium claims across the southwest.

Here in Virginia, the tariffs could have an effect on the Supreme Court case regarding Virginia Uranium’s plan to build a mine in Pittsylvania County.

The company has challenged Virginia’s moratorium on the ore and appealed to the high court in an attempt to bypass the Virginia legislation after unsuccessfully lobbying to repeal the ban. Citizen groups, environmental agencies, and the local governments across Southside Virginia oppose the company, but Virginia’s Attorney General’s office is leading the ban’s defense.

Constitutionally, tariffs are a power of the legislative branch, but under laws such as the Tariff Act of 1930 and Trade Expansion Act of 1962, the president is permitted to impose tariffs under special circumstances in order to protect American industries from foreign competition.

The administration appears to be using the Trade Expansion Act of 1962’s wording that if the Commerce Secretary “finds that an item is being imported into the U.S. in such quantities … as to threaten to impair national security” then the President can impose tariffs on that product.

The Trump administration defines several industries–steel and aluminum especially–as essential to America’s national security and aims to protect those industries by placing high tariffs on foreign variants.

The Commerce Department has opened an investigation on whether to add uranium to that list.

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