Brown, Ryan pleased with trade commission’s ruling

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, and U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, were pleased Tuesday to see the International Trade Commission’s determination that China injured the U.S. tire industry by unfairly subsidizing tire prices.

“Today’s decision shows our steelworkers – like those at Cooper Tire in Findlay – that the U.S. government will take action when other countries don’t play by the rules,” Brown said in a statement. “When countries like China subsidize their tires to gain an unfair advantage over the U.S., American workers pay the price. But when we have a level playing field, our workers can compete against anyone.”

Brown testified at the ITC in June in support of the United Steelworkers union. In June 2014, Brown urged the Department of Commerce to take up the case after the USW filed its petition asking that antidumping and countervailing duties be levied against passenger vehicle and light- truck tires from China.

A month later, the Department of Commerce agreed to investigate the case, and the ITC determined there was a reasonable indication that imports of passenger vehicle and light-truck tires from China posed a threat of injury to the U.S.

Brown’s Leveling the Playing Field Act, which was signed into law last month, will restore strength to antidumping and countervailing duty statutes.

In November 2014, Ryan and other members from Congress urged U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker to move quickly to “provide relief that will restore fair trade to the tire sector in the long term and that will address the surging imports presently facing the industry.”

“I applaud the ITC for their positive determination in support of American workers,” Ryan said in a statement. “This decision once again proves that American jobs are being jeopardized each and every day by China’s unfair trading practices.”