Meta-Strategic Lobbying: The 1998 Steel Imports Case
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Authors
Brook, Douglas A.
Subjects
trade policy
lobbying
steel
lobbying
steel
Advisors
Date of Issue
2007
Date
Publisher
Language
Abstract
In 1998, the domestic steel industry in the United States devised and executed a complex and
sophisticated effort to achieve an effective non-market response to a sudden, persistent, and
damaging surge of imported steel. This campaign lasted until 2002, when President George W.
Bush invoked Section 201 of the U.S. trade laws to impose tariffs on imports of most steel
products. This case of the steel industry’s trade policy campaign provides an opportunity to
examine selected models of protection-seeking industries and lobbying to ask why and how the
steel coalition achieved this extraordinary governmental response. These questions are explored
though a descriptive case of the steel industry’s protection-seeking campaign followed by a
comparative examination of previous models of protection-seeking firms, and lobbying to achieve
protectionist policies. A comparison with selected models of the determinants of protectionseeking
and factors affecting lobbying strategies show that most, almost all, were present in the
steel case. In fact, a meta-strategic approach that transcends the customary understanding of
lobbying is suggested in a complex policy environment. Such an environment can be characterized
by: the need to influence multiple governmental entities – legislative, regulatory, executive; the
desire for multiple outcomes with varying levels of specificity – laws or resolutions,
administrative rulings, policy choices; interactions between different levels and branches of
government; employment of coordinated interrelated lobbying techniques; and simultaneity of
these factors.
Type
Article
Description
The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.2202/1469-3569.1094
Series/Report No
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Citation
Business and Politics, Vol. 7 [2005], Iss. 1, Art. 4
Distribution Statement
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.