Government has a duty to protect US companies

Steel workers in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys have long been losing jobs because other countries “dumped” their pipe on U.S. markets. Dumping is the practice of selling products in a foreign market at prices below what it cost to produce.

It’s not a strategy confined to steel or pipe, as Denman Tire in Warren learned when China started dumping specialty tires on the U.S. market about a decade ago.

Over the years, area steel companies saw their foreign competitors flood the U.S. market with cheap common pipe. Fence posts from China, Brazil, Russia or South Korea increasingly replaced U.S.-made fence posts in this country.

American companies and labor unions fought back, filing complaints with the U.S. Department of Commerce with some success. But in many cases, the damage was already done. Thousands of jobs were lost, and some companies were driven into bankruptcy.

Economic sanctions

Countries are willing to take the chance of economic sanctions down the road because of the immediate benefit dumping provides to them. By selling products at prices below what they sell them for at home or even below what it costs to make them, the countries are stabilizing production at their plants. They are not only exporting products to the United States, they are exporting unemployment for U.S. workers and economic instability for U.S. companies.

It was not difficult to predict that based on the success some companies had in dumping common pipe in the U.S., they would be targeting the even more lucrative oil-country pipe market. And so they have.

Again, companies and unions fought back, and the U.S. Commerce Department and U.S. International Trade Commission provided some relief – but not until pressure was brought to bear by Congress. Last year, Ohio’s U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and Rob Portman, a Republican, led an eventually successful push for trade sanctions against nine countries that were dumping Oil Country Tubular Goods on U.S. markets. Among the companies that had petitioned for relief from unfair foreign competition were JMC Steel in Warren, Vallourec Star in Youngstown and TMK IPSCO in Brookfield.

It is a never-ending battle to protect U.S. companies, their stockholders and their employees from unfair trade practices. While they disagree on some trade issues, such as the recent fast-tracking of Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations, Brown and Portman share common ground in the fight against dumping.

Both gave strong support in this Congress to the Leveling the Playing Field Act that was signed into law June 29 by President Barack Obama. A similar bill died in the House in the last Congress, but was reintroduced by Brown in March and co-sponsored by Portman, and this time it passed.

The law gives the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission new tools to evaluate injury or potential injury to U.S. producers.

Brown and Portman noted that the law will benefit Ohio’s steel companies, including Picoma Industries in Cambridge, Sharon Tube in Niles, Wheatland Tube in Warren, Vallourec Star in Youngstown, and AK Steel.

Leveling the playing field

Brown said the law brings the U.S. “one step closer to making sure our workers have a level playing field.” Portman said cracking down on countries that break the rules will “ensure that Ohio workers can remain globally competitive by holding foreign countries accountable when they skirt the rules by illegally selling or subsidizing imports.”

This new ability comes at a time when oil-country pipe companies are not only threatened by unfair imports, but are dealing with reduced demand for their products in the oil fields.

It’s government’s job to respond to attacks on our domestic markets. The Level Playing Field Act gives the government new tools to respond more quickly to dumping that costs America jobs and productivity.

Properly implemented, it should provide faster relief as a matter of course. It shouldn’t take extraordinary pressure from members of Congress, from trade groups, unions or the press to get the Commerce Department and trade commission to do their best to protect our industries and workers.