Contacts: Wayne Ranick (412) 562-2444, wranick@usw.org
Gary Hubbard (202) 256-8125, ghubbard@usw.org
(Pittsburgh) – The United Steelworkers (USW) today welcomed the decision of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to side with the United States in a major trade dispute covering China’s imposition of illegal antidumping and countervailing duties on imports of grain oriented flat-rolled electrical steel from the United States.
China had illegally imposed duties on these products without following proper procedures in its injury analysis. The WTO’s Appellate Body rejected China’s actions on all counts. President Obama took China to task in September 2010 for their actions. The President is pursuing similar corrective actions against illegal antidumping and countervailing duty actions by China on U.S. poultry exports and on $3 billion of U.S. automobile exports to China.
“The President has made clear that maintaining and creating jobs is his highest priority,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. “Fighting for fair trade and attacking the protectionist and predatory actions of our trading partners, especially China, has been at the top of his agenda.
“Today the WTO sided with the President in his efforts to get a level playing field. The President doesn’t just talk the talk when it comes to standing up to China: he’s shown that he’s willing to stand up to China’s unfair policies. Today’s WTO decision is further validation of the President’s actions.
"This type of steel is a critical component in electrical transformers and is vital to America’s efforts to update and expand our nation’s electrical grid to be a ‘smart grid.’ Today’s decision will help ensure that American workers and industry will be able to provide the capacity to enhance U.S. energy efficiency and infrastructure."
The USW also noted that this case was considered a retaliatory one filed by China and seems to invalidate the fears often generated about starting a "trade war" with China.
“We encourage the President to continue to be aggressive about trade enforcement,” said Gerard. “This particular case is especially important to workers in Pennsylvania and Ohio since it impacts the plants there that produce grain oriented flat-rolled electrical.”
The USW represents about 850,000 workers in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean in a wide variety of industries, ranging from glassmaking to mining, paper, steel, tire and rubber to the public sector, service and health care industries.
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