‘Buy American’ Rule for Keystone Pipeline Dropped After Ex-Foreign Steel Exec Became Commerce Secretary
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross might benefit financially from Trump’s decision to drop the “Buy American” rule from Keystone Pipeline steel.
The Trump administration’s decision to exempt the Keystone XL pipeline from “Buy American” rules could benefit one company in particular: the steel giant that newly minted Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross invested in and helped run for a decade.
Two days after Ross was confirmed, the White House announced that Commerce will not apply those rules to the project. “The Keystone XL Pipeline is currently in the process of being constructed, so it does not count as a new, retrofitted, repaired or expanded pipeline,” a White House spokesperson told Politico.
The pipeline’s exemption from Buy American rules could benefit Luxembourg-based company ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel manufacturer. Ross, a billionaire investor and leveraged buyout specialist, sat on the company’s board until Wednesday, and in January disclosed equity holdings of between $750,000 and $1.5 million.
ArcelorMittal has provided large amounts of material for the Keystone pipeline. According to company documentation, its plant in Bremen, Germany, sold dozens of kilotons of steel to Arkansas-based Welspun Tubular, which used the material to manufacture spiral welded pipe for the project.
The resulting products would not qualify as “American-made” under the definition employed by President Trump’s executive order implementing the rules.
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Potential winner of Keystone XL's Buy-America exemption: a steel firm that Commerce Sec Ross helped run for a decade https://t.co/CbOdLly6tm
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) March 3, 2017
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