[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 163 (Saturday, December 17, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2588-E2589]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       THE GLOBAL TRADING SYSTEM

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. PHIL ENGLISH

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, December 16, 2005

  Mr. ENGLISH. Mr. Speaker, as the United States continues to lead the 
world in trade and commerce, the rules-based system which we helped 
pioneer has been steered off course by some of our trading partners who 
profit from the system without submitting to its disciplines. New 
members in the global trading system are given sufficient time to 
adjust to the established rules. However, economic giants like China 
have taken advantage of this system, to the detriment of our 
manufacturers and workers.
  While China has benefited from our relatively low tariffs and high 
degree of transparency, it has failed to live up to the obligations to 
which it agreed in acceding to the WTO, the global trading body tasked 
with setting the rules. As a result, America's manufacturing sector, 
and most recently the pipe and tube industry, is dwindling away, 
struggling to survive in a market distorted by currency manipulation, 
government subsidization of industry and illegal surges of cheap 
imports!
  This month, however, President Bush and the administration have an 
opportunity to send a powerful message by standing up and protecting 
America's domestic pipe and tube industry by implementing quota relief 
as part of the China-specific safeguard, or Section 421, to help combat 
China's low-cost pipe imports which illegally flood our markets.
  Included by Congress as a condition of China's accession to the WTO, 
Section 421 is a critical element in our trade remedy arsenal because 
it augments the antidumping and countervailing duty laws by providing 
domestic producers with a way to respond to absolute or relative 
increases of imports over periods of time that result in a market 
disruption.
  Between January 2002 and February 2005, five Section 421 petitions 
were filed and initiated by the ITC. In three of those cases the ITC 
found that imports caused market disruption, yet no relief was granted 
to the industries and workers involved under this statute. Earlier this 
year, seven U.S. standard pipe steel producers, two of which are in my 
district in western Pennsylvania, filed a Section 421 trade case to 
seek relief from market disruptions cause by a surge of Chinese pipe 
imports.
  As a result of these surging imports: domestic production and 
shipments are down by more than 25 percent; 20 percent of the domestic 
workforce has been laid off; and, from 2002 to 2004, Chinese market 
share increased from 0.4 percent to just over 10 percent. In addition 
to standard pipe, China is now the single largest exporter of all pipe 
and tube to the U.S., and millions of tons of excess steel and pipe and 
tube capacity in China threaten to wipe out the U.S. pipe industry.
  There is no doubt that surging imports are rapidly displacing 
domestic producers from recent market share. Our American pipe 
producers have clearly fallen victim to a torrent of unfairly traded 
imports from China and it is our legal right to respond by imposing 
this China-specific safeguard program. It is the right thing to do.
  I'm pleased that the ITC agreed and chose to advance the pipe and 
tube petition this past October. Now, however, we have yet another 
Section 421 trade case, standing before the President, awaiting its 
fate. If granted quota relief, this domestic industry will be afforded 
a period to restructure and recover from the damage it has suffered as 
a result of the illegal import surge.
  Our standard pipe producers will be able to rehire laid off employees 
and finally have the opportunity to make investments to regain 
competitiveness and continue to contribute to their local economies 
into the future. A large number of members of this body agree--62 of 
them joined me in sending a letter to the President urging him to grant 
relief this month.
  It is imperative the President grant the domestic standard pipe 
industry quota relief under Section 421, and preserve the American 
steel industry, an industry critical to our nation. In a world where we 
have to compete to win and win to survive, it is critical that our 
manufacturers, workers and all of our businesses compete on a level 
playing field.
  America's standard pipe industry contributes to the making of some of 
the finest products in the world. Providing these firms quota relief 
under Section 421, will level the playing field for these domestic 
manufacturers and allow them to thrive in the international trading 
system of today.

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