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Steelworkers, Steel Pipe Industry File Dumping Complaint Against China |
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The United Steelworkers (USW) joined six U.S. steel producers to file petitions Friday with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission alleging China is illegally dumping and subsidizing imports of welded standard pipe.
The USW and the pipe industry are asking the U.S. government to impose duties to offset China’s subsidies and dumping. Imports of circular standard and structural pipe from China have increased from 10,000 tons in 2002 to 690,000 tons in 2006.
USW President Leo W. Gerard says:
During the past three years in a strong U.S. economy with a robust market for nonresidential construction, we have lost one quarter or about 500 union jobs at plants producing welded standard pipe. This has been devastating for the families of these workers and the communities. Comparable family-supportive jobs are hard to come by.
Since 2002, four U.S. welded pipe plants have shut down and more than 500 employees have lost their jobs.
The complaint came the same day the Commerce Department reported the U.S. trade deficit with China increased 12.3 percent to $19.4 billion in April, the biggest deficit since January. So far this year, the trade gap with China is running 11.9 percent above last year’s pace, when the deficit with China hit $232.6 billion. That was the largest trade gap ever recorded with a single country.
Last week, Commerce announced it will impose duties of up to 99.65 percent on glossy paper from China, Indonesia and Korea because of illegal dumping, an action also urged by the USW.
Under trade law, Commerce can impose duties on products dumped on the U.S. market. Dumping occurs when a foreign country sells a product in the United States at a price less than the cost of production. A second law allows the United States to impose tariffs or duties on imports that are illegally subsidized by government.
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