U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) last week voiced support for Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. and the United Steelworkers in their petition for relief from dumped and subsidized imports of tin mill products from several foreign countries.
“For over a century, steelmaking has been integral to the economy of the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia,” Sen. Capito testified during a Jan. 4 U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) hearing on tin mill products. “Now, the fate of this plant is in jeopardy because unfair trade in the tin mill market has caused material injury, including lost sales and hundreds of layoffs to domestic producers.”
Currently, Cleveland-Cliffs and the United Steelworkers are petitioning the U.S. Department of Commerce and the ITC seeking countervailing duties on imports of tin mill products from China in January 2023 and antidumping duties on imports of tin mill products from Canada, China, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.
The ITC held the hearing to consider arguments for and against the imposition of antidumping and countervailing duties on tin mill products from all of those countries.
During her remarks, Sen. Capito emphasized the importance of Cleveland-Cliffs’ operations to the Weirton, W.Va., community, the history of steel production in that region of the state, the significance of American-made steel for national security, and the country’s leadership in clean steel production.
“This region has been supported by steel production for over 120 years. However, due to unfair trade practices, the Weirton plant now depends entirely on tin mill steel production,” testified Sen. Captio. “If we lose that product, we lose the whole facility, and the long and proud history of steel production at Weirton will come to an end.”
“That would not only be devastating to the region but to the family of every steelworker who puts food on the table through their paycheck,” she added. “Furthermore, it will have dire ramifications for everyone in this hard-working community that has already suffered too much from the impact of unfair trade left unremedied.”
Sen. Capito cited preliminary determinations from the Commerce Department showing that producers in Canada, China, and Germany are engaged in unfair trade of tin mill products.
“There is no doubt that the domestic producers are being injured by this unfair trade,” Sen. Capito said. “Since the summer of 2022, Cleveland-Cliffs and U.S. Steel have been forced to lay off hundreds of workers at their tin mill facilities. This figure includes 300 Weirton employees, 300 of my constituents, who were laid off this summer when imports continued to attack the U.S. market even after the launch of these cases.”
The senator encouraged the ITC to use all of its authorities granted by Congress to aggressively enforce U.S. trade laws to keep manufacturing and American jobs in the U.S.
“We cannot afford to wait for any more harm because this harm would likely cause tin mill production to cease in the United States and leave our country solely reliant on imports of this vital material,” she testified.