WASHINGTON—U.S. Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), members of the U.S. Senate Steel Caucus, along with Reps. Murphy (R-PA) and Visclosky (D-IN), co-Chairmen of the House Steel Caucus, sent a letter today to Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.  The letter encourages Secretary Pritzker to reallocate the necessary resources to ensure thorough investigations of antidumping and countervailing duty cases.  There are currently 6 major trade cases before the International Trade Commission—covering both hot and cold-rolled steel and the pipe and tube industry—in which American manufacturers have asked for assistance in combatting illegal trade practices by foreign competitors who are provided foreign subsidies to undercut the jobs and wages of American workers.

Text of the letter follows:

“Dear Secretary Pritzker:

We are writing to encourage you to use reprogramming authority to provide the necessary resources for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance (OEC) to investigate the historic number of trade petitions recently filed with the office by U.S. industry.  These antidumping and countervailing duty cases, many of which have been brought by the steel industry, are American manufacturers’ most effective method of addressing foreign competitors’ unfair trade practices.  As such, it is critical that the OEC has sufficient analysts to conduct these investigations and evaluate the trade petitions in an accurate and efficient manner.

Unfortunately, as a result of persistent and increasingly harmful global unfair trade practices, American manufacturers and workers have been forced to bring a growing number of trade cases to the OEC.   Between 2012 and 2014 the case load before the OEC more than doubled, and this year, the case load is estimated to increase by at least another 20 percent.  At the same time, the number of OEC analysts has declined to its lowest point in more than 10 years.  An estimated 62 AD and CVD petitions are expected to be filed this year, and 104 analysts in OEC will be tasked with reviewing them.  In 2002, when 60 petitions were filed, OEC had 168 analysts on staff.  These drastic staffing reductions mean fewer analysts are doing more work on increasingly complicated trade cases that are critical to maintaining a robust manufacturing sector.   Without additional resources to hire more analysts, OEC will continue to face an overwhelming workload with an inadequate number of analysts.  As a result, American businesses and workers may face longer delays before receiving trade enforcement relief.

We know that budgets are tight throughout the Commerce Department and across all federal agencies, but processing trade petitions quickly and accurately is critical to the competitiveness of the U.S. manufacturing sector.  We ask that you use your existing reprogramming authority to increase OEC’s resources.  Doing so is necessary to respond to the historic number of trade petitions filed by domestic industry and to ensuring U.S. trade laws are fully enforced.

Thank you for your consideration of this letter. We look forward to working with you to combat unfair trade practices and support American manufacturers.

Sincerely,

Jeff Sessions, United States Senator

Sherrod Brown, United States Senator

Tim Murphy, Member of Congress

Peter J. Visclosky, Member of Congress”