谁能豁免于美国钢铁关税？

Specialised wire for windscreen wipers: yes. Steel plates for repairing broken bones: no. Bill Brebrick, sales manager for Zapp Precision Wire, has been learning fast about what the US government will exempt from its tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium.

专门用于制造汽车挡风玻璃雨刷的钢丝：豁免。用于修复断骨的钢板：不豁免。Zapp Precision Wire的销售经理比尔布雷布里克(Bill Brebrick)随时关注着哪些产品能豁免于美国政府的进口钢铝关税。

Specialised wire made in Germany, sold by Zapp to be made into windscreen wipers in Mexico, is available only on import, the US department of commerce has ruled, and has therefore won an exemption. Shaped plates used to repair badly broken bones, however, could in the government’s view be made in the US, so Zapp faces tariffs on those unless it finds a domestic supplier.

美国商务部裁定，德国制造的专用钢丝——由Zapp出售，用于在墨西哥制成雨刷——只能依靠进口，因此批准豁免。然而，用于修复严重骨折的特形钢板在美国政府看来可以在美国制造，因此Zapp的这些产品将面临关税，除非它找到一家美国国内供应商。

The Trump administration in March introduced tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium, and also set up a process for US importers to request exclusions. As application for requests on tens of thousands of products have flooded in, many companies said they were finding the bureaucracy frustrating and the decisions bewildering.

今年3月，特朗普政府宣布对钢铁和铝分别征收25%和10%的关税，并创建了一套流程，让美国进口商能申请关税豁免。随着企业争相提交数万种产品的关税豁免申请，许多企业表示，他们发现这套流程中的官僚作风令人沮丧，官员所作的决定令人困惑。

Winners and losers are being chosen seemingly arbitrarily by the government, they complain, distorting markets and disrupting supply chains. Meanwhile, a backlog of decisions continues to grow.

他们抱怨称，政府似乎颇为武断地挑选赢家和输家，这扭曲了市场，扰乱了供应链。与此同时，积压的申请数量还在继续增加。

“Manufacturing was doing so well,” said Mr Brebrick. “People would like to get back to business as usual. Let us compete on a level playing field and leave us alone. No more regulation, please!”

“制造业原本状况非常好，”布雷布里克说，“人们希望回到过去的正常状态。让我们在一个公平的环境中竞争，别干预我们。别再出什么规定，拜托了！”

The sour joke among opponents of Mr Trump’s strategy is that while his tariffs may do little to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US, he has at least been highly successful in creating work for the federal government.

反对特朗普关税政策的人士中间流传着一个冷笑话：他的关税或许对把制造业岗位带回美国没什么帮助，但他至少在为联邦政府创造工作方面取得了巨大成功。