AISI applauds new bill to address trade cheating

The legislation, which was authored by Democrat and Republican senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman will, says the AISI, strengthen US trade remedy laws to crack down on trade cheating and enhance the enforcement tools needed to combat repeat offenders of US trade remedy laws. The measure also addresses the growing problem of 'cross-border subsidization' where foreign governments subsidize the steel industries not only in their own countries but in other countries as well.

Kevin Dempsey, president and CEO of the AISI, commented, “The American steel industry is the backbone of the economy but has faced repeated surges of unfairly traded steel in recent years. Domestic steelmakers have successfully sought relief under the US trade remedy system, only to face new surges of steel imports of the same products from other countries not subject to the original anti-dumping or countervailing duty orders. This bill will help address the ‘whack-a-mole’ problem, when new imports immediately replace the old ones, by creating successive investigations and allowing for quicker relief than under the current system. The bill also tackles subsidization across borders, such as when Chinese steelmakers — subsidized through China’s Belt and Road Initiative — build new export-oriented steelmaking facilities in other Asian countries, including Indonesia, Vietnam and others. This bill will go a long way in fighting against these unfair subsidies which can injure US producers.”

Dempsey also applauded the provisions of the bill addressing the statutory timelines for anticircumvention inquiries, clarifying the standards by which the Commerce Department will investigate allegations of currency undervaluation as a subsidy, and other provisions to combat trade distortions in the steel market.

“By strengthening the effectiveness of the US trade laws, this bill will help give the American public confidence that their government has every tool available to fight for a level playing field for every American worker. We appreciate the continued leadership of Senators Brown and Portman in support of the American steel industry and urge senators to quickly support this bill.”