President Bush can protect U.S. steel industry and jobs

For nearly six months, the main focus of President George W. Bush and his administration has been on the war against terrorism, and understandably so.
But very few presidencies are defined by a single issue, because a nation such as the United States cannot afford to be consumed by one issue.
This week President Bush is going to have to make a decision that has humanitarian, economic, security, political and historic implications. He is going to have to decide the future of the domestic steel industry.
It is an industry that cannot survive without protection against unfair imports -- imports that have contributed in recent years to the bankruptcy of 31 companies, including many in the tri-state area.
Thousands of steel workers in Northeastern Ohio alone have been forced from their jobs. Thousands of retirees have seen their pensions and health benefits cut or lost when their former companies have gone into bankruptcy.
Companies that were once the life blood of their communities -- providing not only jobs, but civic support and tax payments that provided vital government services -- have been shuttered.
What happened: Whether unfair foreign competition has been one of the factors behind these failures is no longer a matter of speculation. The International Trade Commission found that the U.S. steel industry had sustained serious injury from imports that were dumped on U.S. markets, that is sold at less than it cost to produce the products.
There's no question that there are more steel plants in the world than the market can support. In effect, foreign countries have been exporting their unemployment to the United States. European steel producers are planning to scale back, but in the meantime they've been happy to keep their workers employed -- at the expense of and U.S. companies and employees.
Meanwhile, the United States has become the only industrialized nation in the world that couldn't produce all the steel it needs if it had to. That, obviously, becomes a security issue.
Critics of tariffs are the users of steel -- producers of appliances, cars, tractors, electrical equipment -- who say their costs will increase if tariffs are enacted. While that's true, it's also a shortsighted complaint, because their costs would increase more in the future if there is no longer a domestic steel industry.
The political implications of President Bush's decision are well explained in a column at right on this page. President Clinton's failure to act in the best interests of domestic steel producers hurt Al Gore, the Democratic nominee, in 2000 election. The issue could haunt President Bush in 2004.
U.S. steel interests have been urging President Bush to place tariffs of 40 percent on certain imported steel products, and that's the percentage he should adopt. Anything less would send a message that he is not serious about protecting the steel industry. It would also encourage nations to dump other products on the U.S. market in the future.
The president has a historic opportunity to act decisively to protect a vital industry and preserve thousands of U.S. jobs. He should take it.