[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 42 (Wednesday, March 17, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2876-S2877]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRADE FAIRNESS ACT OF 1999

 Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I rise to cosponsor S. 261, the 
Trade Fairness Act of 1999. I believe this legislation is crucial to 
our attempts to save American jobs from unfair competition and dumping.
  Specifically, Mr. President, we must implement this legislation to 
protect our steelworkers from imports dumped into our domestic markets 
by our Russian, Asian and Brazilian competitors.
  American steelworkers have proven that they are our nation's 
backbone. They provide the materials on which our shipping, 
manufacturing, indeed our entire industrial base rely. In my state's 
Upper Peninsula two mines, the Tilden and the Empire, employ almost 
2,000 Michiganians. Last year the workers in these mines produced over 
15 million tons of iron ore pellets. They paid $8 million in taxes. 
Time and again they have stood up for America, and it is time for 
America to stand up for them.
  We must stand up for these hard working men and women, Mr. President, 
because they face a very real threat to their livelihoods. Let me cite 
a few numbers. By October of last year Japan had already doubled its 
imports to the United States from the year before. Just in that month 
of October, Japan sent 882,000 tons of steel to the United States, an 
all-time record. Finally, in that month alone 4.1 million net tons of 
steel were imported to the United States.
  The reasons for this steep increase in imports are threefold. First, 
the Federal Reserve's longstanding tight money policy produced actual 
deflation in commodity prices, deflation from which our steel industry 
has yet to recover. Second, the Asian, Russian and Brazilian economic 
crises are forcing those countries to rely on exports to keep their 
economies afloat. The U.S. is the world's biggest market, and so they 
have targeted us. Third, the International Monetary Fund convinced 
these countries to raise interest rates and devalue currencies, which 
allowed their steel to undercut our prices.
  Combined, these factors have encouraged the unfair trade practice of 
dumping, selling steel in the United States at prices below the cost of 
production. This practice threatens disastrous consequences for our 
steelworkers and for

[[Page S2877]]

our economy. Already, Mr. President, 10,000 workers have been laid off, 
with more than twice that many put on reduced hours.
  We cannot stand by while American workers lose their jobs. We cannot 
abide the unfair trade practice of dumping. We have worked hard--these 
men and women have worked hard--to build a prosperous America. We 
cannot sacrifice them to pay for bureaucrats' mistakes, be they in 
Washington, Tokyo, or Moscow.
  Mr. President, I have never made a secret of my strong, free-trade 
views. But free trade must also be fair trade. Our laws already 
recognize this principle. After all, we already have trade laws on the 
books intended to deal with these kinds of issues. It is time to 
enforce them. In addition, however, I believe the fact that these trade 
laws are not being enforced shows the need for reform.
  That is why I am cosponsoring the Trade Fairness Act. This 
legislation will lower the threshold for establishing injury to our 
industries so that we may more effectively protect them from unfair 
trade practices.
  Under this law imports that have a causal link to substantial injury 
in an industry will trigger action. Substantial injury will be 
determined by the International Trade Commission, considering ``the 
rate and amount of the increase in imports of the product concerned in 
absolute and relative terms; the share of the domestic market taken by 
increased imports; changes in the levels of sales, production, 
productivity, capacity utilization, profits and losses, and 
employment.''
  In addition, this legislation establishes a comprehensive steel 
import permit and monitoring program modeled on similar systems in 
Canada and Mexico. The program would require importers to provide 
information regarding country of origin, quantity, value, and 
Harmonized Traffic Schedule number. The legislation also requires the 
Administration to release the data collected to the public in aggregate 
form on an expedited basis.
  The information provided by the licensing program will allow the 
Commerce Department and the steel industry to monitor the influx of 
steel imports into the U.S. Presently, it is very difficult to obtain 
timely information regarding the volume of steel that enters the 
country. It usually take 2-3 months before specific figures can be 
obtained. This makes it very difficult to gauge the extent of the 
problem when the damage is occurring.
  Mr. President, this legislation provides us with the tools we need to 
protect working Americans from unfair foreign competition. It will 
prevent undue hardship while upholding the standards of free, fair and 
open trade.
  I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

                          ____________________