Area congressmen are seeking tariffs on Russian titanium

NILES -- Congressmen Tim Ryan and Ted Strickland are leading a push to start imposing tariffs on Russian titanium as a way to protect domestic titanium makers, including RMI Titanium in Weathersfield Township, from unfair competition.
Ryan of Niles, D-17th, and 10 other Ohio members of Congress wrote a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick, urging immediate termination of preferential treatment of Russian titanium producers.
The White House is expected to decide by July 1 whether to extend a tariff exemption that has been in effect since 1997.
Ryan and Strickland of Lisbon, D-6th, also sent a letter as members of the House Manufacturing Caucus calling for return of the tariffs on Russian titanium companies.
RMI, which has locked out about 370 union workers since October, has said it must take drastic cost-cutting measures because it is losing business to a massive Russian titanium mill known as VSMPO.
The Russian mill's low wages make it possible to sell titanium at deep discount prices, and it has the capacity to make enough titanium to supply the entire U.S. market. Titanium is a strong, light metal used mainly in the defense and commercial aerospace industries.