WASHINGTON, D.C.| Wages are stagnant. Income inequality is increasing. Steel imports are snuffing out jobs.
More of the same is unacceptable, said Thomas Conway, International Vice President of the United Steelworkers union.
“We are ratcheting down our industrial sectors into oblivion,” he said. “In the process, we hemorrhage good jobs just like is happening right now in the steel industry.”
Conway called upon the federal government to stop foreign steel dumping and reject proposed trade deals while testifying at the Congressional Steel Caucus’s “State of Steel” hearing on Thursday. He said giving the president fast-track trade authority and signing a Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement would increase the trade deficit, cost good-paying jobs and make manufacturing wither away in America.
Members of the caucus, which advocates for the domestic steel industry, were divided on the trade agreement. U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., said he thought it was more likely that Powerball would make him a multimillionaire than a new trade agreement would benefit American industry. Richard Hudson, R-N.C. said they should “keep their powder dry” on the issue and try to work in provisions that would benefit domestic steelmakers.
Steelmakers and the union both say the sector is suffering because of a record share of imports, including a projected 58.2 percent of all steel and tube products next year. They both point fingers at China, where it’s widely recognized the government has subsidized over 1 billion tons of capacity, said Douglas Polk, chairman of the Committee on Pipe and Tube Imports and Vice President of Industry Affairs for Vallourec USA. Last year, China exported 100 million metric tons of steel that was sold at a quarter less than world prices.
“Despite the endless attempts over the years of diplomatic exchanges between the U.S. and China there has been no end to subsidized steel expansion in China,” Polk said. “Today, China continues to expand its steel overcapacity.”
China’s current five-year plan calls for further expansion of its steel industry, and the next one is expected to do the same, Conway said.
“I’m not going to repeat the statistics,” he said. “But they paint a gruesome picture of an industry and workers slammed by a set of policies and practices used by our trading partners designed to fulfill their industrial policy plans – usually at our expense.”
Trade cases are ineffective because the duties are only imposed after the fact, after U.S. steelmakers already have lost jobs and market share, Conway said. Foreign competition gains market share easily because it takes the system so long to respond, and the jobs are gone by then.
Winning a trade case only stabilizes the market and doesn’t restore what was because the damage was inflicted, Conway said. The United Steelworkers recently convinced the International Trade Commission to impose tariffs on imported pipe for gas and oil industries, and--despite the victory--U.S. Steel is still making deep job cuts in its tubular facilities.
“We have lost good manufacturing jobs and market share in rebar, in line pipe, in stainless, in wire rod, electrical steels and in other commodities such as copper, tires and paper,” Conway said. “The Steelworkers do not want trade cases. We want trade to work for working people. Bringing trade case means that we’ve been injured and that’s the last thing we want.”