Sherrod Brown re-introduces bill to strengthen trade laws

YOUNGSTOWN — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown has re-introduced a bill to strengthen the enforcement of trade laws.

Brown, a Democrat of Cleveland, met with Doug Polk, Vallourec USA’s Vice President of Industry Affairs, to discuss the negative impact of steel imports on the domestic steel market.

Vallourec USA has the Vallourec Star plant on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard where steel pipes are produced for the oil and gas industry.

The Leveling the Playing Field Act Brown re-introduced today would restore strength to antidumping and countervailing duty statutes that allow businesses and workers in the U.S. to petition the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission when foreign producers sell goods in the U.S. below market price or receive illegal subsidies, according to a press release Brown’s office sent out.