WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Rob Portman (R-OH) joined a bipartisan group of 19 senators who wrote a letter to Chairman Irving Williamson of the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) asking that the Commission maintain the existing antidumping and countervailing duty (CVD) orders against unfairly traded imports of hot-rolled steel. These trade orders help maintain a level playing field for an already vulnerable domestic steel industry, including Ohio based steel producers like ArcelorMittal of Cleveland and AK Steel of Middletown.

“As our trade deficit continues to widen, it becomes more urgent to level the playing field for Ohio based steel producers like ArcelorMittal and AK Steel,” Brown said. “Our workers can compete with anyone in the world when on a level playing field. That is why my Senate colleagues and I urge the ITC not to remove existing trade laws which impose import duties to counteract illegal trade practices from foreign competitors like China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, and Ukraine.”

“The steel industry is vital to Ohio’s economy, and hot-rolled steel facilities employ thousands of Ohioans throughout our state,” Portman said. “Ohio steelworkers can compete and win on a level playing-field, but we must enforce our trade laws to ensure that foreign competitors do not target the U.S. market with unfairly dumped products.”

Brown and Portman have long championed the American steel industry and fought to ensure it can compete fairly in the international trade market. In August, the senators applauded the ITC preliminary vote in favor of protecting domestic producers of Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) from foreign competitors that use unfair and illegal trade practices. The ITC voted 6-0 affirmative as to all nine countries in the OCTG case - India, Korea, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam. This preliminary decision came almost a month after Portman and Brown urged the ITC to protect Ohio workers and businesses during the U.S. Department of Commerce‘s (DOC) probe into allegations that nine countries were illegally selling steel pipe at unfairly low prices in the United States. 

In 2011, Brown authored and Portman voted for the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act, bipartisan legislation which would use U.S. trade law to counter the economic harm to U.S. manufacturers caused by currency manipulation and would provide consequences for countries that fail to adopt appropriate policies to eliminate currency misalignment.

Brown’s and Portman’s letter to the ITC can be read in its entirety below:

 

October 30, 2013

 

The Honorable Irving A. Williamson

Chairman

U.S. International Trade Commission

500 E Street, S.W.

Washington, D.C. 20436

 

RE:      Hot-Rolled Carbon Steel Flat Products from China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, and Ukraine: Inv. Nos. 701-TA-405, 406, and 408 and 731-TA-899-901 and 906-908 (Second Review)

 

Dear Chairman Williamson:

We are writing to encourage you to maintain the existing antidumping and countervailing duty orders against unfairly traded imports of hot-rolled steel from China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, and Ukraine. These trade orders are necessary to prevent further injury to an already vulnerable domestic steel industry.

While the economy is growing slowly, the U.S. hot-rolled steel industry is in substantially worse condition than it was when the Commission last considered these trade remedies, five years ago. The recent financial performance of domestic hot-rolled steel producers confirms that production and capacity utilization rates are down, and the industry’s rates of return are wholly inadequate to justify future investment. Moreover, U.S. demand for hot-rolled steel remains weak and the overall health of the U.S. and global economy is unstable.

At the same time, hot-rolled steel producers in all six countries are heavily export-oriented and have become even more so given depressed market conditions in their home and traditional export markets. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, global steel overcapacity is substantial and growing. Yet, these countries continue to expand their capacity at alarming rates. With economic slowdowns in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia, foreign producers in these six counties will not hesitate to ship their dumped and subsidized excess steel into the United States, as they have in the past.

As the Commission is aware, the Department of Commerce recently determined that revocation of the antidumping orders would likely lead these countries to dump hot-rolled steel into the United States at margins ranging from 4.41 percent to 90.83 percent, and that revocation of the countervailing duty orders would likely lead to continuation or recurrence of a countervailable subsidy at margins of more than 500 percent. In other words, these trade remedy orders are the only thing preventing significant quantities of unfairly traded hot-rolled steel from these countries from quickly overwhelming an already vulnerable industry and causing harm to U.S. manufacturers and their workers.

Given the current state of the domestic industry and the ability of producers in China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan and Ukraine to send significant quantities of hot-rolled steel to the U.S. market, removing the existing trade orders would harm the domestic industry and its workers. As a result, we strongly urge you to maintain the existing orders against dumped and subsidized imports of hot-rolled steel.

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration of this critical issue.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Senator Joe Donnelly

Senator Jeff Sessions

Senator John Boozman

Senator Sherrod Brown

Senator Richard Burr

Senator Robert Casey, Jr.

Senator Dan Coats

Senator Richard Durbin

Senator Al Franken

Senator Lindsey Graham

Senator Kay Hagan

Senator Tom Harkin

Senator Amy Klobuchar

Senator Carl Levin

Senator Rob Portman

Senator Mark Pryor

Senator John D. Rockefeller IV

Senator Richard Shelby

Senator Debbie Stabenow

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