Bipartisan US Representatives Ms Terri Sewell of Alabama and Mr Bill Johnson of Ohio introduced Eliminating Global Market Distortions to Protect American Jobs Act of 2021 legislation in the US House of Representatives that seeks to combat China's unfair trade practices and industrial overcapacity with an eye on protecting the domestic steel industry, among other sectors. Ms Sewell said “This targeted bill will modernize our antidumping and countervailing duty protections to combat China's subsidies, prevent China's circumvention of US laws and penalize repeat offenders by expediting successive investigations to stop country-hopping and duty evasion.”The American Iron and Steel Institute President & CEO Mr Kevin Dempsey said “This legislation will strengthen the effectiveness of the US trade laws and will give American workers the confidence that their government has every potential tool available to fight for a level playing field against foreign competitors that seek to cheat the system. The domestic steel industry appreciates the leadership of Representatives Sewell and Johnson in introducing this critical legislation, which is a companion piece to the bipartisan measure introduced earlier this year by Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman. We urge both Republicans and Democrats to support this crucial bill.”Mr Dempsey continued “American steelmakers have repeatedly won relief against unfair trade practices under the US trade laws, often at great expense, only to face new surges of steel imports of the same products from other countries not subject to the original antidumping or countervailing duty orders. This bill creates a new process for successive investigations to provide for more timely relief against these subsequent surges than under the current system.”Mr Dempsey also applauded the bill’s provisions to address “cross-border subsidization,” where foreign governments subsidize industries not only in their own countries but in other countries as well. This is exemplified by recent action taken by China to subsidize its steelmakers to build new export-oriented steelmaking facilities in other Asian countries, such as Indonesia, through the Belt and Road Initiative.
Bipartisan US Representatives Ms Terri Sewell of Alabama and Mr Bill Johnson of Ohio introduced Eliminating Global Market Distortions to Protect American Jobs Act of 2021 legislation in the US House of Representatives that seeks to combat China's unfair trade practices and industrial overcapacity with an eye on protecting the domestic steel industry, among other sectors. Ms Sewell said “This targeted bill will modernize our antidumping and countervailing duty protections to combat China's subsidies, prevent China's circumvention of US laws and penalize repeat offenders by expediting successive investigations to stop country-hopping and duty evasion.”The American Iron and Steel Institute President & CEO Mr Kevin Dempsey said “This legislation will strengthen the effectiveness of the US trade laws and will give American workers the confidence that their government has every potential tool available to fight for a level playing field against foreign competitors that seek to cheat the system. The domestic steel industry appreciates the leadership of Representatives Sewell and Johnson in introducing this critical legislation, which is a companion piece to the bipartisan measure introduced earlier this year by Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman. We urge both Republicans and Democrats to support this crucial bill.”Mr Dempsey continued “American steelmakers have repeatedly won relief against unfair trade practices under the US trade laws, often at great expense, only to face new surges of steel imports of the same products from other countries not subject to the original antidumping or countervailing duty orders. This bill creates a new process for successive investigations to provide for more timely relief against these subsequent surges than under the current system.”Mr Dempsey also applauded the bill’s provisions to address “cross-border subsidization,” where foreign governments subsidize industries not only in their own countries but in other countries as well. This is exemplified by recent action taken by China to subsidize its steelmakers to build new export-oriented steelmaking facilities in other Asian countries, such as Indonesia, through the Belt and Road Initiative.
