Ross seemed to be pushing for a trade war over steel in a closed-door meeting with Senate Finance Committee members, but he has not put a time frame on his review's release. Officially, he has 270 days to submit a report to Trump - which translates to anytime between soon and late fall.
What next?
If Ross finds that steel imports threaten to impair national security, Trump must determine within three months whether he concurs with the commerce secretary's findings, and what actions should be taken.
In practice, the White House's current goal is to ramp up "America First" pressure on the eve of Trump's first Sino-U.S. dialogue. Theoretically, Ross and Trump can defer difficult decisions on steel only until early spring 2018.
However, a Pandora's box has now been opened and an adverse decision could not just derail Sino-U.S. bilateral relations, but alienate Washington's NATO partners and undermine much of past economic progress worldwide.
The author Dan Steinbock is the founder of Difference Group and has served as research director at the India, China and America Institute (USA) and visiting fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (China) and the EU Centre (Singapore).
