EDWARDSVILLE – The United Steelworkers (USW), Madison County Chairman Alan J. Dunstan and other officials were today notified the U.S. Department of Commerce late Friday issued a determination for duties on hot-rolled steel imports from seven countries.
“The Commerce Department’s final ruling was anxiously awaited by steelworkers and steel companies for the past year of the investigation,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. “It levels the playing field with imports to provide fair and sustainable market prices for American steel, a critical step in restoring balance to the market.”
He further stated: “The hot-rolled steel trade case and others like it are vital to saving steel jobs and our communities. But they’re only part of the solution. Chinese excess steel overcapacity is causing terrible injury world-wide and remains a long-term threat.”
“In America, we must reignite demand by rebuilding the nation’s failing infrastructure and manufacturing growth with our own steel in order to compete in a global economy.”
The trade case, filed by six U.S. steel companies last August, charged producers in Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom with violating international trade laws by improperly subsidizing their steel producers and by dumping hot-rolled steel at below market prices in the U.S. market.
Dunstan said that while the Department of Commerce’s ruling is another step in the right direction to level the playing field for U.S. manufacturers and steelworkers, thousands of men and women are still laid-off and waiting to return to work.
