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18 September, 2001Steelworkers say relief necessary to prevent collapse of American steel industry and cite the need for self sufficiency to protect national security.
NORTH AMERICA: In opening testimony before the International Trade Commission (ITC) on the Section 201 Trade Petition filed by the Bush administration, the president of the United Steelworkers of America, Leo Gerard, called for "immediate and comprehensive relief to prevent America from being seriously compromised in its ability to satisfy the steel demand so critical for our national security." Gerard testified that the underlying cause of the increased imports, which have depressed prices and devastated American steel producers over the past three and a half years, "is the massive excess steelmaking capacity in all parts of the world, except for the U.S. and Canada, the only two major steel-producing nations without self-sufficiency in steelmaking." The USWA brief excludes Canada from blame for the U.S. steel crisis.
The USWA national director for Canada, Lawrence McBrearty, declared that the need to protect steel as an integrated North American industry means the Canadian government must send a message to importers which is seen to be equal in strength and determination to that of the U.S. "The message to the ITC in the U.S. is one that confirms how important it is to control low-priced imports that have caused bankruptcy and unemployment in both countries, where the market is about 25 per cent larger than total domestic production capacity," said McBrearty. "The message to our government in Canada is that protection must include duties that are retroactive to the date the dumped steel started entering the country, and to make sure brokers as well as steel companies can be charged with dumping." McBrearty said there must also be a clear commitment of support to help restructure the industry, including the saving of Algoma Steel, currently under bankruptcy protection and in the difficult process of restructuring. "Thousands of jobs are at stake," he declared, "and not just in the industry itself."
The USWA recently issued two reports - Global Steel Capacity and American Steel: Capacity, Employment, Cost - documenting the existence of 300-million tons of global overcapacity in steel production, all of it in countries outside the U.S., which currently produces only enough steel to meet 80 percent of domestic demand.
Access the associated links to the USWA in the U.S. and Canada for more information.
The USWA national director for Canada, Lawrence McBrearty, declared that the need to protect steel as an integrated North American industry means the Canadian government must send a message to importers which is seen to be equal in strength and determination to that of the U.S. "The message to the ITC in the U.S. is one that confirms how important it is to control low-priced imports that have caused bankruptcy and unemployment in both countries, where the market is about 25 per cent larger than total domestic production capacity," said McBrearty. "The message to our government in Canada is that protection must include duties that are retroactive to the date the dumped steel started entering the country, and to make sure brokers as well as steel companies can be charged with dumping." McBrearty said there must also be a clear commitment of support to help restructure the industry, including the saving of Algoma Steel, currently under bankruptcy protection and in the difficult process of restructuring. "Thousands of jobs are at stake," he declared, "and not just in the industry itself."
The USWA recently issued two reports - Global Steel Capacity and American Steel: Capacity, Employment, Cost - documenting the existence of 300-million tons of global overcapacity in steel production, all of it in countries outside the U.S., which currently produces only enough steel to meet 80 percent of domestic demand.
Access the associated links to the USWA in the U.S. and Canada for more information.