US to Assess Security Risks of Transformer Imports - Commerce Dept.

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th May, 2020) The United States is conducting an investigation to determine if imports of power transformers and related products pose a natural security threat to the nation, the Commerce Department said in a statement.

"US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced he will initiate an investigation into whether laminations for stacked cores for incorporation into transformers, stacked and wound cores for incorporation into transformers, electrical transformers, and transformer regulators are being imported into the United States in such quantities or under such circumstances as to threaten to impair the national security," the statement said on Monday.

The Commerce Department said an assured domestic supply of these products is needed so the US can handle large power disruptions affecting critical infrastructure and defense industrial production capabilities.

The Trump administration is launching the probe under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 - the same law used to justify steel tariffs.