Kaptur Testifies Before International Trade Commission in Support of Trade Protections for American Steel Companies, Workers
Washington, D.C. – Today, Representative Marcy Kaptur (OH-09) testified before the U.S. International Trade Commission in support of maintaining trade protections for the American steel industry and companies like Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs that produce hot-rolled steel.
Today, Rep. Kaptur offered testimony before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) calling for the ITC and the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) to maintain anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders on imported hot-rolled steel products from Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Russia, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.
These orders – first implemented in 2016 – have safeguarded the American steel industry against unfair trade practices by nations that subsidize and dump steel products in the United States, thereby harming American steel companies and workers. In 2017, Rep. Kaptur was the only Member of Congress to testify at a Commerce hearing regarding an investigation of steel imports and illegal dumping of steel in the United States. As a result of the existing orders supported by Rep. Kaptur, the American steel industry has invested heavily in domestic manufacturing, including Cleveland-Cliffs’ recently-completed $1 billion Direct Reduction plant in Toledo and its $200 million upgrade to the Cleveland Works plant in Cleveland.
“Steel is the backbone of manufacturing and a crucial material in supply chains,” Rep. Kaptur testified. “We need to ensure that our domestic steel industry remains strong; that the steel industry continues to invest and hire workers; and the steel industry is able to innovate for the future. That is why maintaining these orders is so essential. If imports of hot-rolled steel are allowed to once again flood the U.S. market – as the Department of Commerce has already determined will happen – we know what the consequences will be. The domestic steel industry will be undermined, plants will be shuttered, and workers will lose their jobs. America will become dependent on other nations for key steel products that are necessary to our defense, energy, and automotive sectors. As such, I strongly encourage the U.S. International Trade Commission to maintain these anti-dumping and countervailing duties for hot-rolled steel products.”
“I greatly appreciate Congresswoman Kaptur’s support and strong testimony at the International Trade Commission’s sunset review hearing on existing hot-rolled steel anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders,” said Cleveland-Cliffs Chairman, President, and CEO Lourenco Goncalves. “The continuation of these orders is critical to ensuring that the United States maintains a technologically advanced and carbon efficient steel industry. Without these AD/CVD orders in place, Cleveland-Cliffs would not have the confidence to invest, less than three years ago, $1 billion to build our state-of-the-art Direct Reduction plant, which generated more than 1,000 jobs during construction and 160 full-time, good paying union jobs in Toledo, Ohio. The continuation of these orders will support market conditions that enable further transformational investments by our company.”
More information on the ITC’s anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders case can be found here. Rep. Kaptur’s full testimony before the ITC can be found here.
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For more information, contact Chris Dalton at chris.dalton@mail.house.gov.