April 3, 2007 — United States Steel Corp.’s Merle Stein, General Manager of the company’s Fairfield Works, joined with labor and management representatives from the Alabama steel industry to applaud the recent introduction of H.R. 1229—the "Non-Market Economy Trade Remedy Act of 2007"—by U.S. Representative Artur Davis (D-AL). The legislation will ensure that U.S. anti-subsidy law applies to imports from non-market economies (NMEs) including P.R. China.

Over the past six years, the United States has seen record trade deficits—including an estimated $232 billion trade deficit with China in 2006—and the movement of manufacturing facilities overseas, particularly to China. The effect on the U.S. manufacturing base, its workers, and the U.S. economy has been devastating and threatens to worsen.

The purpose of anti-subsidy law, also known as countervailing duty (CVD) law, is to offset the unfair competitive advantage that foreign manufacturers or exporters obtain as a result of export subsidies. Such subsidies can take any of a variety of forms, from government intervention in currency markets and government intervention in raw material markets to preferential access to loans from state-directed banks or any of several other means. But regardless of how it is supported, manufacturing in China and other NMEs is, and threatens to remain, heavily subsidized.

As U.S. manufacturers move forward in their critical modernization and production efforts to serve customers both here and abroad, it is important that they have all available and appropriate tools to challenge unfair foreign trade.

In his remarks, Stein noted that the entire U.S. steel industry, including management and labor, have embraced the Davis bill and are working for its enactment into law. He thanked Congressman Davis for his leadership on the issue and noted that the bill will serve the interests of all U.S. manufacturers who are being harmed economically by China's unchecked and unfair trade practices.

"Putting the bill in its broader context," Stein said, "our anti-dumping and anti-subsidy laws constitute in most instances our only practical line of defense against severe market-distorting practices that would otherwise allow foreign producers to overrun this market. So, when putting these laws to work, it simply makes no sense to exempt Chinese producers from the reach of the subsidy law, particularly given the evidence that they are among the most heavily subsidized producers in the world. We are lucky to have an elected leader representing Fairfield Works who understands these issues and is working to address them."

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