The churn over steel tariffs (click here) took me back to April 2002 when Buzzy and I were in Shanghai.
At the hotel where we were staying, I met a nice lady one morning on the elevator as we rode down to the second floor, where breakfast was being served. I noticed that she was too dressed up to be a tourist so I asked her if she was part of a WTO conference group that was also staying at our hotel. She said “Yes. I’m here representing U.S. Steel and we’re meeting with the Chinese on tariffs.” I followed up by asking “What’s the issue?” She answered “We just smacked a 30% tariff on them and they’re not too happy about it.” I asked “Aren’t the tariffs supposed to make folks back home buy more of ours then?” She laughed and said “That’s the theory but I doubt it.” “Why?” I asked. She said “Because their steel is made better and is cheaper than ours.” (Click here for a related article on the 2002 imposition of steel tariffs and how they were eventually rescinded after proving to be ineffective.)
The lady and I were approaching the dining room and while I would liked to have chatted more with her, our tour group was doing one of those “Be-on-the-bus-by-8-o’clock-days” and I had to hurry. We wished each other good luck and parted ways.
I joined my Dad and a couple of Brits from Leeds whom we had befriended. (When I first met them, the Brit was wearing a Live at Leeds pullover and I joked with him that I once owned that famous Who album. In turn, he had said “Well mate, I was at the concert when it was recorded but I don’t recall much about it given the state that I was in. I had to buy the album too just to see what I missed.” Naturally he and I became friends.)
As I sat down at the table and was getting ready to tell them about my elevator conversation with the “steel lady” the Brit asked us “Are you chaps anywhere near La Plata, Maryland? I just saw on the news that a Cat 5 tornado went thru there and pretty much levelled the place.”
Buzzy and I quickly finished breakfast and then stopped by the pay phones in the hotel lobby to try and call home to see if the tornado had done any damage in our areas. After Buzzy tried his calling card several times and couldn’t get thru, he gave up saying “To hell with it. If something did happen I can’t do anything about it over here. Besides, Berta will take care of anything that needs to be done.”
I guess you could say that La Plata was shaking all over during the tornado:
P.S. While I have mentioned the La Plata tornado a couple of times previously (click here) (click here) I had forgotten about my encounter with the steel lady until now. Funny isn’t it, how memory joggers can sometimes work their magic on us?