Download Production-Quality Video to Full Exchange Here 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, in a U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearing, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) advocated for passing his bipartisan bill with Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), the Eliminating Global Market Distortions to Protect American Jobs Act. This legislation would help strengthen U.S. trade remedy laws and ensure they remain effective tools to fight back against unfair trade practices, and help block steel overcapacity that leaves Ohio steelworkers and companies at a competitive disadvantage.

During the hearing, Brown questioned expert witness, Michael R. Wessel, a Commissioner on the bipartisan U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, about how this legislation would help combat unfair trade practices and protect workers.

More on Brown’s hearing exchange is included below and video is available HERE:

Brown: Would you agree, Mr. Wessel, that China has never engaged in a good faith effort to reduce overcapacity?

Wessel: I would agree, 100 percent. Yes, sir.

Brown: Sen. Portman and I recently introduced legislation, I think you know, to strengthen our anti-dumping and countervailing duties – building on our Leveling the Playing Field Act of five years ago – to challenge China’s unfair trade practices and reduce the impact of overcapacity, and support workers in Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and all [states]. Do you agree this legislation would help support Ohio’s steelworkers and protect U.S. jobs?

Wessel: Senator, I think it’s not only Ohio steelworkers but workers all across the country, because, as you know, it’s steel, it’s aluminum, it’s chemicals, it’s solar up in Senator Wyden’s area. It’s about 15-17 sectors that are in overcapacity, and decimate U.S. production and employment. So, I think the tools you’re talking about are vital, and they reflect a changing nature of China’s competition.

Brown: So walk through, for the Committee, why the Brown-Portman bill will help to create more of a level playing field across those 17 industries?

Wessel: Well, as you know – and I think Clete [Willems] used the comment, “whack a mole” – China’s overcapacity is like a whack a mole problem. Not only do they change the nature of the product that then creates a new competitive pressure here, but they’re flooding other countries’ markets with their core products. You’ll remember, several years ago, oil country tubular goods – we had a case against China. We successfully won that. They then sent hot-rolled coil into Korea that was transformed in a minor way. Korea uses no OCTG, but they started shipping it to the U.S., and again we lost production and employment here in the U.S. That’s just one example across hundreds, if not thousands, of products. Each trade case takes about a year and a half for the first result, and as much as five [years] for a final, and costs generally between $1.5 and $3 billion. But that doesn’t even talk about the injury that’s occurred to the company and the workers. Many companies never come back, as you know, and you’ve seen that in your state. So, the tools you’ve provided in your and Senator Portman’s legislation would make it easier to address serial dumping. It would make it easier in a situation like today, where companies are just coming back to profitability – but that can be used against them at the ITC. So, I’d say, all of the tools that you’re providing are ones that U.S. companies and workers need.

This legislation has been endorsed by the American Iron and Steel Institute and is supported by a number of Ohio steel companies, including Nucor, SSAB Americas, Wheatland Tube of Niles and Warren, OH, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. and ArcelorMittal North America. The legislation is also supported by other Ohio manufacturers, including Mullet Cabinets of Millersburg, Ohio.  

Specifically, the Eliminating Global Market Distortions to Protect American Jobs Act will strengthen trade remedy laws by:

·       Cracking down on repeat offenders, by blocking the “whack-a-mole” problem that occurs when trade remedy orders are put in place on imports from one country, and as a result the U.S. market is flooded with dumped or subsidized imports of that same product from a different country.

o   The legislation establishes a process for these successive and concurrent investigations at the International Trade Commission (ITC) and U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce Department), and instructs the ITC to consider certain factors concerning the relationship between the successive investigation and concurrent or recently concluded investigations on the same imported product.

o   Under this bill, domestic industries will have the power to seek expedited relief in situations where a U.S. company has successfully fought for relief under U.S. trade remedy laws only to face a new surge in imports of the same product from another country that’s not impacted by the initial relief order.

·       Requiring the Commerce Department to issue preliminary determinations in these repeat offender cases to ensure quicker relief for U.S. manufacturers and workers, thereby strengthening the ability of the U.S. government to enforce antidumping and countervailing duty laws.

·       Addressing the growing problem of cross-border subsidization, as foreign governments subsidize their own manufacturers not only at home but in third country markets as well.

o   This happens when state-subsidized steelmakers from China invest in facilities in other countries to circumvent existing trade remedies.

·       Providing the Commerce Department with additional tools to combat cost distortion that may put U.S. manufacturers and producers at a disadvantage and properly calculate costs and value in antidumping investigations.

o   The legislation would also clarify the “normal value of a sale” to ensure the Commerce Department can act to prevent exporters in other countries from distorting their sales to circumvent antidumping investigations.

·       Clarifying the Commerce Department’s authority for antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings, helping to crack down on importers that attempt to evade antidumping or countervailing duties.

o   The legislation would allow the Commerce Department to require importers to provide a certification upon entry of an article into the United States that states that the imported article is not subject to an antidumping or countervailing duty order. 

·       Requiring the Commerce Department to investigate allegations of currency undervaluation in circumstances where the allegations meet the criteria for investigation under the existing countervailing duty law.

o    The legislation ensures the Commerce Department will use appropriate methodologies to calculate any subsidy conferred as a result of currency undervaluation.

Read more about Brown’s bipartisan legislation HERE and HERE. 

###