Mr Thomas J Gibson president & CEO of American Iron & Steel Institute has issued the following statement regarding a US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruling this week to strike down the US Commerce Department's application of countervailing duties against subsidized products, including steel, from China:

He said that "AISI is gravely concerned with this erroneous court decision, which will cost valuable American jobs at a time when we need to be creating jobs, not eliminating them. It is well documented that the Chinese government is the world's biggest subsidizer of favored manufacturing industries. This results in unfairly traded exports undercutting US manufacturers, and contributes greatly to our country's trade deficit with China, which is expected to exceed USD 294 billion this year. According to one estimate, the US trade deficit with China has cost Americans 2.8 million jobs over the past 10 years. With over 20 Chinese products currently subject to countervailing duties, duties that were imposed only after a comprehensive investigation this ruling gives Chinese producers and exporters a license to unfairly attack the US market with the full resources of the Chinese government."

He added that "If left to stand, this ruling will deny the US government a critical WTO authorized tool to address one of China's leading trade distorting practices. AISI urges the Obama Administration and the Congress to begin work immediately to enact legislation clarifying that the CVD law continues to apply to non market economies, like China, where the Department of Commerce determines that it can isolate and measure subsidies. Congress has never passed any legislation prohibiting the application of the CVD law to non market economies, and the Court's mistaken conclusion to the contrary must be corrected."