The United Steelworkers is calling the US Department of Commerce’s order for proposed anti dumping tariffs on Chinese pipe imports known as oil country tubular goods an overdue message for thousands of American laid off workers that trade laws are being enforced.

Mr Leo Gerard international president of USW cited the anti dumping margins for OCTG Chinese exporters as promising to US producers, more than half of whose workforce is on layoff status caused by the huge inventory of dumped Chine pipe imports.

He said that "China's government and exporters are being told we are fed up with their cheating on our fair trade laws and penalties for these transgressions are long overdue. Consistent and swift US trade law enforcement must be the standard with our trading partners if we are to retain good jobs and rebuild our economic manufacturing capacity. China's dumped and subsidized OCTG pipe imports are a threat to working families and the future of a critical product used in our nation’s energy extraction industry."

Seven domestic OCTG producers and the USW filed an anti-dumping and countervailing duty trade case against China imports with the International Trade Commission and the US Department of Commerce in April, the statement said. OCTG represents weld and seamless steel pipes that are used to extract oil or gas from a drill well.

Mr Tom Conway VP of USW said that the US government investigation into the OCTG trade cases gives reason to believe there will be a call back of laid off American pipe workers who can share in the recovery of this industry once the unfairly traded Chinese import inventory is de stocked.

In September 2009, the Commerce Department found that Chinese OCTG exporters benefited from massive government subsidization and announced countervailing duty margins ranging from 11% to 31%. The increase in Chinese imports of OCTG is made worse by the global recession that increases the impact on good jobs in the steel and pipe manufacturing sector.

The next step in the case will be a public hearing on Dec. 1 before the ITC, and a final anti-subsidy or countervailing duty determination will be made by the Commerce Department later this month, with a first ITC injury determination in early January. The dumping portion of the trade case will be finalized in the spring of 2010.

(Sourced from www.chestertontribune.com)