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Mollohan Calls on Trade Commission
In testimony Tuesday before the ITC, Mollohan said that lifting the duties would hurt a steel industry that is already grappling with global oversupply and increased energy and raw material costs.
He called on commissioners to keep the tariffs in place another five years – the same position taken by the Stand Up For Steel coalition and Mittal Steel, which owns Weirton’s mill.
“While Mittal’s Weirton facility almost exclusively produces tin mill at present, dumped or subsidized corrosion-resistant steel undermines the viability of the company as a whole and thus jeopardizes the facility and the community of Weirton,” Mollohan told commissioners.
“Continuation of the existing orders on corrosion-resistant steel is crucial for the overall U.S. steel industry to remain competitive,” he testified.
The duties – on product from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Korea – were put in place in 1993. They were extended in 2000 after the ITC determined that lifting them would lead to further dumping in the U.S. market and harm to U.S. producers.
The ITC is required to review the antidumping orders every five years to see if such a threat still exists. Mollohan testified that it does.
“The Commerce Department, in June of this year, already ruled that the same countries will start dumping the same products in the U.S. again if the remedies are taken off,” he said.
Lifting the orders would likely result in foreign steel entering the U.S. market at unfair trade margins of 10 to 36 percent, according to the Commerce Department’s projections.
“In a time of surging global trade deficits, the ITC’s work to make sure that our trade remedy laws are effectively enforced is more important than ever. So far this year, the goods trade deficit is up 14 percent and if that trend holds we will face an $800 billion global trade deficit in 2006,” Mollohan testified.
Additional unfair imports should not be allowed to inflate the figure, he said.
“Combating dumped and subsidized product from abroad is the right thing to do for U.S. communities, workers and companies,” he said. “While there are additional challenges looming ahead, continuation of these orders will provide necessary relief to domestic steel companies and help keep plants open in my district and throughout the country.”
Commissioners are expected to rule in December on whether the tariffs on corrosion-resistant steel should be kept in place.
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