Congressional Steel Caucus Hearing: Visclosky's Opening Statement

On May 26, 2011, Pete and Congressional Steel Caucus Chairman Tim Murphy held a hearing on the “State of Steel” in America and the policies and developments affecting its success. View Pete's opening statement below:

Good morning. I want to begin by thanking Chairman Murphy for organizing this hearing. We have worked together on a bipartisan basis and, I look forward to continuing to do so. I also want to thank all of the members of the Congressional Steel Caucus who have taken their time to attend this morning’s hearing. And lastly, I want to thank the witnesses who will be testifying today. We all appreciate you providing us with your expertise, and I’m looking forward to hearing from each of you. I remain particularly concerned with the unfair trade practices of many of our trading partners and particularly the illegal dumping and currency manipulation engaged in by China that undermines our steel producers and other manufacturers.

We must ensure a fair playing field for the domestic steel industry. Recovering from the recession is difficult enough, without having to compete with foreign companies receiving massive subsidies from their own governments.

Additionally, as many of you know, the International Trade Commission recently revoked the antidumping duty suspension agreements covering hot-rolled, flat-rolled steel for Japan and Brazil. Although I am glad to see that the ITC extended the agreement for Russia, I am concerned about the decisions regarding Brazil and Japan.

As I stated in my testimony before the ITC in April, domestic steel production is crucial to the recovery of the American economy, and we cannot afford to have the fragile recovery jeopardized by unfair trade practices.

I look forward to hearing from our panel on these and a range of other issues affecting the steel industry. With that, I would like to conclude by reiterating my thanks to Congressman Murphy, our excellent panel, and everyone who is here participating today.