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The United Steelworkers severely criticized the decision handed down today by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to revoke antidumping and countervailing duty orders on imports of certain steel products from all countries currently covered except Germany and Korea.

“Today the Commission turned a blind eye to the unfair trade practices harming our steel industry,” declared USW President Leo W. Gerard. “Their decision upends important orders that have helped counteract unfair trade practices and kept good steelworker jobs here in the United States.” 

Gerard said, “We appreciate the important orders kept in place, but wiping out the rest of these orders will force us to compete with dumped and subsidized imports and puts the industry’s ability to continue investing in the future very much at risk.”

The Commission’s vote revoked orders on imports of corrosion-resistant steel from Australia, Canada, France and Japan, while maintaining orders for Germany and Korea. All orders for cut-to-length plate were also revoked for Belgium, Brazil, Finland, Germany, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.

“The waves of unfairly traded imports that led to the imposition of these orders contributed to plant closings, bankruptcies, and lost jobs and benefits for thousands of America’s steelworkers,” said USW International Vice President Tom Conway.  “Today’s vote turns back the clock on America’s steel workers, and once more puts us at the mercy of foreign producers who routinely taken advantage of our open market to dump their unfairly traded steel.”

Steelworkers whose jobs in the corrosion-resistant and plate industries were at stake in the case attended the commission’s hearings on the orders in October of this year, where commissioners heard testimony from Gerard and Conway.

Today’s decision appears to partially reward the lobbying efforts of auto makers, who campaigned to revoke the orders.  “Sacrificing one industry to unfair trade in a vain attempt to help another is a losing strategy for American manufacturing,” noted Gerard. “Instead of celebrating today’s decision, the automakers should be working together with us to remedy the global distortions that threaten both of our industries.  Our union is committed to carrying that fight forward for the sake of our members and their communities.”

Pete Janicki, USW Local 2227 President representing production workers who make corrosion resistant steel at US Steel’s Irvin Works near Pittsburgh said:  “We made a lot of sacrifices to keep this industry alive in the face of unfair trade – workers lost their jobs, their retirement security, and their healthcare.  We need to honor that sacrifice by demanding our trade laws be enforced so our industry can compete on a level playing field.”