[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 46 (Tuesday, April 23, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H1492]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H1492]]
                   DOMESTIC STEEL INDUSTRY IN CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 23, 2002, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, in recent years the United States has 
become the world's largest steel dumping ground at the expense of U.S. 
jobs, U.S. families, the U.S. economy, and maybe U.S. national 
security. It is a fact. This fact must be addressed now.
  As a Nation, we import more than twice as much steel than we did in 
1991 and we do so at prices significantly lower than those in 1998. 
This surge in illegally dumped steel has been devastating to the 
domestic steel industry. In the last 4 years, 26 steel companies have 
filed for bankruptcy; seventeen have filed for bankruptcy protection in 
the last year alone. This list includes three companies in northeast 
Ohio: RTI of Lorain; LTV Steel of Cleveland; and CSC Steel in Warren.
  I recently joined civic leaders, company executives, and steelworkers 
at a public rally for Lorain's RTI, a steel manufacturer that employs 
1,500 people in my district. At the rally, I cited the President's 
decision to impose a section 201 steel tariff as one of the primary 
reasons that I was optimistic. But at the same time we were rallying in 
support of RTI, the President's Treasury Secretary was telling European 
leaders that he expected a large proportion of the tariff exemption 
applications filed with the United States to be decided upon favorably 
by the United States. As a representative of a steel-producing State 
that has suffered severe hardship due to illegal steel dumping, I was 
disturbed to hear the President's Treasury Secretary make comments 
shifting the administration away from its own recently imposed 30 
percent tariff on imported steel. These statements have continued to be 
a source of great concern to those of us in Congress who had assumed, I 
hope not wrongly, that the Bush administration was committed to 
enforcing its own tariffs on illegally dumped steel.
  One can imagine the confusion these statements have caused the tens 
of thousands of already anxious steelworkers. The President's remedy 
excludes steel coming from Korea and Australia. The tariff remedy also 
excludes steel from our NAFTA partners, Canada and Mexico, which opens 
up the very real possibility of the illegal transshipment from Asian 
countries or somewhere else through Mexico or Canada. A Mexican steel 
company, for example, could easily have foreign steel shipped to a 
plant in Mexico, where they then could redirect it to the United States 
with little or no direct value added.
  Administration trade officials have argued that there are appropriate 
controls in place to prevent this transshipment of foreign steel, but 
there are also controls in place to prevent the transshipment of other 
items and the transshipment of illegal narcotics through Mexico, and to 
prevent the importation of unsafe foods. The sad truth is the Federal 
Government, because of Republican budget cuts, inspects only 1 percent 
of all the imports, food and any other kinds of steel imports and 
anything else, only 1 percent of the imports that cross the U.S.-
Mexican border. Our border agents simply do not have the resources 
necessary to prevent illegally transshipped steel from entering our 
country.
  The current tariff remedy has already been diluted by the Bush 
administration. The holes in this steel tariff that President Bush 
himself created severely weaken our safeguards against illegal dumping. 
During an October visit in 2000 to Weirton, West Virginia, then Vice 
Presidential Candidate Dick Cheney criticized the Clinton 
administration's handling of the steel issue. He pledged that a Bush 
administration would take action on the steel crisis, and he told 
steelworkers, ``We will never lie to you. If our trading partners 
violate trade laws, we will respond swiftly and firmly.''
  The steel industry needs the administration to follow through on that 
promise. The domestic survival of this industry absolutely depends on 
it. The survival of this industry is not just an economic issue. It is 
also an issue of national security. We must protect the 700,000 hard-
working families who rely on this industry for their salaries, for 
their pensions, and for their health benefits. We also must ensure that 
we retain the ability in terms of national defense to manufacture steel 
for planes and weapons and ships.
  In addition to strict enforcement of the Bush tariff, the Republican 
leadership in the House should respond to public demand, should respond 
to a majority of Members on both sides of the aisle, and bring the 
Steel Revitalization Act to the House floor. In the future, Congress 
and the President must respond to the public's demand for U.S. trade 
policies that actually support American workers. If the President is 
sincere about helping the steel industry, he will not allow these 
exemptions suggested by his own Treasury Secretary. He will not allow 
these inappropriate exemptions to erode the effectiveness of his 
tariffs. He will not back away from these measures before they have 
been given a chance to work.
  To give concerned Members of Congress, Mr. Speaker, and employees of 
the steel industry confidence, I urge President Bush to publicly affirm 
his support for his own administration's steel tariffs.

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