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The Steelworkers are praising a federal Commerce Department decision to impose federal duties on subsidized hot-rolled steel imports to the U.S. from seven nations. For once, China was not among them.
The agency’s March 15 decision imposes tariffs on imports from steel producers in Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, Holland, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Commerce says those nations broke international trade rules “by improperly subsidizing their steel producers and by dumping hot-rolled steel at below-market prices in the U.S. market,” USW said.
Hot rolled steel is primarily used in appliances, cars and trucks, heavy machinery, machine parts, and nonresidential construction and transportation equipment, the Steelworkers said. A small portion is further processed into cold-rolled and galvanized or plated steel.
“With more than 12,000 ongoing layoffs across the American steel and iron ore mining industry, plus tens of thousands of steelworkers jobs depending on this decision, it sends a strong signal that our government will enforce international trade laws to defend American manufacturing jobs,” said USW President Leo Gerard.
“The domestic steel sector is facing a crisis caused by a flood of unfairly priced imports and by global overcapacity, largely fueled by China,” he added. “If we allow illegal trade practices to choke the American manufacturing sector and its workers, we foolishly undermine our country’s ability to compete globally, and dangerously undermine our national security.”
The six U.S.-based steel companies that petitioned the Commerce Department last year said the dumping led to a 73 percent increase in imports of offending nations’ steel from 2012-2014, and a 54 percent rise from January-May 2015, compared to January-May 2014. Commerce said the subsidies ranged from 3.97 percent-7.33 percent for Korean steel makers to 49.05 percent for British firms.
Tom Conway, Steelworkers International Vice President responsible for national steel sector bargaining, said: “Our members have the skills and are ready to mine the iron ore and to make the steel for cars, appliances, high speed rail, skyscrapers and America’s infra-structure. But dumped and unfairly subsidized foreign imports destroy those jobs and destabilize our country’s manufacturing and mining sector.”