Senator Bayh helps Steelworkers

Senator says China's predatory pricing hurts domestic steel workers


Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Senator Evan Bayh today urged President Bush to apply existing U.S. trade laws to provide much-needed relief to U.S. steel workers struggling against a flood of imported steel from China. Over the past three years, Chinese companies have been releasing an overwhelming amount of standard pipe into the market, driving the cost of imported steel below the cost of the raw materials that domestic manufacturers use to make the same product. As a result, several steel plants have been forced to close, in spite of existing trade laws passed specifically to counterbalance the unfair advantage China enjoys because of the unfair trade policies it continues to practice.
"Chinese companies are using currency manipulation, illegal subsidies, and a host of other unfair trade practices to gain an unfair advantage over U.S. workers," Senator Bayh said. "It's time for the Administration to take a stand against the cheating."

The U.S. and all member countries are allowed to take action against import surges under trade laws agreed to when China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). The new trade laws were included in part to acknowledge the unfair advantage China enjoys because of its unfair trade practices, so countries could provide some relief to domestic industries threatened by such practices. The trade law, known as Section 421, allows countries to enforce quotas on products from foreign countries that have been proven to be flooding the domestic market to the detriment of domestic companies. However, no American industry has yet received relief under the law.

In a letter to President Bush, Senator Bayh, along with a bipartisan group of 20 other senators, outlined the impact that surging steel imports are having already on U.S. companies and urged the Administration to use the law to stem further job losses at domestic steel plants. Since 2002, steel imports from China have increased from 10,000 to more than 270,000 tons, flooding the market and dramatically reducing the ability of domestic manufacturers to compete. Already, 20 percent of the steel workforce for producing standard pipe has been laid off and plants in three states have been forced to close.

"Our steelworkers have proved their willingness to work hard by restructuring their industry over the last few years and they shouldn't see the fruits of their labor lost because no one would stand up for what is right," Senator Bayh said.

Bayh has been a strong supporter of the U.S. steel industry and the more than 20,000 Hoosiers who have worked to help their industry compete in the global economy. Bayh actively petitioned both the Clinton and Bush Administrations to open an International Trade Commission investigation into unfair trade practices, which led to the temporary tariffs that gave the steel companies time to restructure their operation.

If you would like to do your part, to help save these jobs, you can call 866-311-1889 toll free and ask the President to enforce our trade laws and to grant quota relief under Section 421 to the Pipe and Tube Industries, their workers, and their families.
Don't let these Steelworker Jobs go Down the Tubes!