ICYMI: Brown Testifies Before ITC, Supports Continuation Of AD/CVD Duties to Level the Playing Field for Ohio Steelworkers

WASHINGTON, DC - In Case You Missed It: Yesterday, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) testified virtually on behalf of the entire U.S. flat-rolled steel industry and its thousands of Ohio workers, urging the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to recommend that President Biden extend anti-dumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) to ensure U.S. Steel, Cleveland-Cliffs, Nucor, and Steel Dynamics, and their workers, get sufficient relief from unfair trade practices of foreign competitors. Flat-rolled steel imports have harmed the domestic industry and will continue to do so if the orders are lifted, especially the workers at Cleveland-Cliffs' Cleveland and Middletown facilities.

"If dumped and subsidized steel imports are once again allowed to come into the U.S. market unchecked, it will be impossible for American companies to generate the returns necessary to pay workers family-sustaining wages and to make the huge capital investments required for the continued competitiveness of U.S. mills," said Brown during his testimony. "I've been to Cleveland-Cliffs' mills. These are some of the most skilled and dedicated workers anywhere. But they can't compete against dumped and subsidized imports, no matter how hard they work."

For years, workers in the U.S. flat-rolled steel industry companies have found themselves at a severe competitive disadvantage due to unfairly traded foreign imports.

In 2016, Brown testified before ITC during a final determination hearing on antidumping and countervailing duties on cold-rolled, hot-rolled, and corrosion-resistant steel flat products. The three cases were filed by U.S. steel companies, including: U.S. Steel, AK Steel, ArcelorMittal, and Nucor, all of which have Ohio locations and together employ more than 8,000 Ohioans. Following Brown's testimony, ITC issued a unanimous finding that the U.S. steel industry has been injured by cold-rolled steel imports from China and Japan. This positive decision was good news for Ohio steel companies and resulted in new antidumping and countervailing duty orders against the countries' steel imports.

Brown has long advocated for legislation to help U.S. manufacturers to compete with foreign competitors.

Brown was recently appointed to serve as a conferee on the committee that will reconcile the differences between the House's America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength (COMPETES) Actof 2022 and the Senate's U.S. Innovation and Competition Act(USICA). Brown has been fighting to ensure that his Leveling the Playing Field Act is included in the final legislation. The Leveling the Playing Field Act will strengthen U.S. trade remedy laws and ensure they remain effective tools to fight back against unfair trade practices and protect American workers.

Brown's remarks, as prepared for delivery can be found below:

Chairman Kearns and members of the Commission, thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of both the entire U.S. flat-rolled steel industry and the thousands of Ohio workers represented by the petitioners in the two flat-rolled steel products cases before you.

I testified about this matter back in 2016. My message today remains the same as it was then, and that's sadly because too little has changed: we still face the threat of dumped and subsidized imported cold rolled steel destroying jobs in the United States.

Our steel companies are critical to our nation's infrastructure, our national security, and our global competitiveness. And of course they're critical to our economy - tens of thousands of Americans, including many Ohioans, rely on this industry for good-paying, middle class jobs.

But our steel manufacturers will struggle in the face of dumped and subsidized imports if these duties are not reimposed. If we refuse to provide them the relief they need to compete, thousands of workers could be laid off, as happened in 2015 and 2016.

The Commission plays a critical role in enforcing U.S. trade laws by determining whether the domestic industry has been injured by the imports in question.

You're being asked to examine injury in the flat-rolled steel sector: today, on cold-rolled steel, and last week, on corrosion-resistant steel flat products.

It is clear that the domestic flat products steel sector met the statutory definition for "injury" in the original case. And, sadly, global conditions have not changed in the five years since then. Subsidized steel imports caused serious harm to this industry before, and there is no reason to believe the outcome would be any different today, if duties were lifted.

ITC is well aware of the impact of unfair trade practices on the American steel sector. And with the ITC's new agency-wide commitment to looking at regional and demographic effects of trade practices, I ask that the ITC note the disproportionate impact these issues have had and will continue having on steel-producing states like Ohio.

If dumped and subsidized steel imports are once again allowed to come into the U.S. market unchecked, it will be impossible for American companies to generate the returns necessary to flourish - ensuring that workers are paid family-sustaining wages and making the huge capital investments required for the continued competitiveness of U.S. mills.

We've seen this over and over again. We saw it in the tire industry. We saw it in the paper industry. And we saw it in the steel industry.

And when that mill closes, supply chains shrink, manufacturing capabilities are lost, and jobs connected to the mill are lost too. Ohioans know all too well what this closure does to entire communities.

And we lose another critical link in our domestic supply chain forever.

When foreign competitors use unfair trade practices to get ahead and put our companies out of business, our trade laws are supposed to provide the relief necessary to level the playing field.

That's all we're asking for - a level playing field. American companies and American workers can compete with anyone, when given a fair chance.

In this case, thousands of union steelworkers at Cleveland-Cliffs' facilities in Cleveland and Middletown will be directly affected by this decision.

I've been to Cleveland-Cliffs' mills. I've talked with Ohio steelworkers about their jobs and their lives - I've met their families and heard their stories - their hopes, their dreams, and their fears about what happens when work disappears. These are some of the most skilled and dedicated workers anywhere. But they can't compete against dumped and subsidized imports, no matter how hard they work.

The Department of Commerce has already found that dumped and subsidized products will resume if the duties are removed.

Since the market conditions around global steel overcapacity have not changed, I urge you to draw the same conclusion that you drew in 2016. The facts support that decision, and thousands of workers in Ohio depend on it.

I will be submitting a letter for the record that my fellow Ohio Senator Rob Portman and I led. This letter applies to both cases, and is signed by many of our Senate colleagues of both parties.

It makes the same message I am making to you today: removing these tariffs only rewards bad behavior by foreign actors AND costs us steel jobs in Ohio and throughout the nation.