[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 22 (Tuesday, March 5, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H670-H671]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          COMPROMISE RESULTS IN SELL-OUT OF IRON ORE INDUSTRY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Shimkus). Under a previous order of the

[[Page H671]]

House, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Stupak) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. STUPAK. Mr. Speaker, I take to the floor tonight to talk about 
President Bush's proposed remedies on steel imports. Unfortunately, for 
those of us who represent iron ore miners in northern Minnesota and 
northern Michigan, the remedy proposed by the President today does 
little to help us.
  We must look back to December of last year in which the ITC, the 
International Trade Commission, by a six to nothing vote said illegal 
steel, steel products, slab steel, was being dumped in this country to 
the great harm of the U.S. steel industry. With slab steel, that 
replaces iron ore pellets. In order to make steel, we need a raw 
product like iron ore pellets or slab steel.
  In order to corner the market, foreign countries have been dumping 
slab steel in this country at exorbitant amounts since 1998. Every time 
slab steel comes into our country, it hurts our iron ore miners. In 
fact, up in my district, the Empire Mine has just shut down. Over 800 
workers have been laid off and all the managerial and administrative 
people have been laid off.
  So we were hoping today that President Bush would give us a strong 
steel remedy. We asked for 40 percent over 4 years, as allowable under 
U.S. law. Although the report was put forth today, and some in the 
media have called the tariff and quota on imported steel a compromise, 
I believe the iron ore industry may have been sacrificed in making that 
compromise. We in the iron ore industry have basically been sold out.
  The ITC, the International Trade Commission, caught nations cheating 
under import pricing; and as I said earlier, by a six to nothing vote, 
they agreed those imports were hurting the domestic steel and the iron 
ore industry.
  If we take a look at what the President did today, he said we will 
allow 5.4 million tons of imported slabs to come into the United 
States, but we will not count Mexico or Canadian slab steel coming into 
the United States. So basically, we are at about 7 million tons a year. 
That is exactly what they are importing right now. So therefore, the 
remedy does nothing for those of us who have been harmed over the last 
4 years by illegal imports. Because this import level of 7 million for 
slab steel has already caused mines to shut down and layoffs in 
northern Michigan and elsewhere, we have really won nothing with the 
President's proposed remedy.

  If we take a look at it, Mexico has been used more than once by 
countries throughout the world as an export platform. By that I mean to 
get around the President's proposals today, his remedies today, other 
countries can export their product to Mexico, and then from Mexico it 
will come into the United States. Mexico, as I said earlier, the 
President made an exemption for them as to steel products. Therefore, 
any country who wants to get around the new trade remedies proposed by 
the President will just ship their product to Mexico, it suddenly 
becomes a Mexican product, and it comes into the United States, it 
comes into the United States as not being part of the quota put forth 
by the Bush administration.
  If we take a look at it, and in fact, one of the recent articles that 
appeared right after the President made his recommendation was from the 
California Steel Institute. They said, ``We are pleased that the 
President recognized that slabs are different from finished products 
and excluded slab from the tariff measure imposed on finished steel 
products.'' Those who use slabs already recognize that the President 
did nothing to stop or stem the tide of illegal slabs into this 
country. The vice-chair of the ITC was quoted today in explaining their 
treatment of slab, and said that it wanted ``to avoid causing harm to 
domestic steel producers that have legitimate needs to continue to 
import slabs.'' The vice-chair, Deanna Okun, added that a tariff on 
slab ``would have a potentially severe impact on the members of the 
domestic industry that need a reliable source of slab.'' Reliable 
source.
  The iron ore industry in my district has been there for over 150 
years. One cannot get much more reliable than men and women going day 
in and day out, working in the iron ore mines for 150 years to provide 
America with the basic raw material it needs to produce steel, being 
iron ore pellets.
  The California Steel Institute went on to say, ``We fought hard to 
convince the U.S. Government to treat slabs separately from finished 
steel. As a raw material that is virtually nonexistent in the U.S. 
market, slab is fundamentally different from finished steel products 
such as hot bands and plate.'' Yes, it is different, because those of 
us in this country use iron ore as opposed to cheap imported slabs.
  I should note that the California Steel Institute that I have been 
commenting on here tonight, 50 percent is owned by CBRD, a Brazilian 
iron ore company, and the other 50 percent is owned by a Japanese 
company. So while California steel industries are talking about how 
they have no remedy or how the slab remedy proposed by the President 
does not hurt them, they are already foreign owned. They will use 
Mexico as an export platform, and they will just sidestep these 
proposed remedies.
  The California steel industry and others who have used slab steel 
realize that the President's remedy is nothing, and slab was not hurt. 
In fact, they are pleased with the remedy the President put forth. We 
in the iron ore industry and those who represent iron ore miners are 
not pleased. Iron mines are as reliable as the day is long. The miners 
have been there for us through all the world wars. They are loyal, 
hard-working Americans; and now they have just basically been exported 
out of this country.
  I previously passed an amendment last year, a ``melted and poured'' 
amendment, which basically says that any steel used in the United 
States defense industry must be from steel that is melted and poured 
here in the United States. I will be offering this amendment again in 
the next 30 to 60 days on the supplemental appropriation bill; and 
every possible piece of legislation that it is germane to, I will be 
offering this amendment. I and others who represent iron ore miners 
will not give up, we will not sell out, we will not be shortchanged, 
and we will not shortchange our miners. We plan to be here day in and 
day out to continue to stand up for our iron ore miners.

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