U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) on Monday applauded a new investigation by the U.S. Commerce Department into whether imported grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES) products are a threat to national security, action the congressman recently called for on behalf of the AK Steel Butler Works mill in Butler, Pa.
“Thank you to President Trump, Secretary Ross, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer for hearing our community’s concerns and taking action to end the unfair trade practices that threaten AK Steel’s ability to continue production of electrical steel,” Rep. Kelly said.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced on May 4 that he will initiate an investigation into whether laminations for stacked cores for incorporation into transformers, stacked and wound cores for incorporation into transformers, electrical transformers, and transformer regulators are being imported into the United States in such quantities or under such circumstances as to threaten to impair the national security, according to the Commerce Department.
The decision to launch an investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 follows inquiries and requests from multiple members of Congress, including Rep. Kelly, as well as industry stakeholders.
Rep. Kelly has worked with Cleveland-Cliffs subsidiary AK Steel and the Trump administration since 2017 to address the threat of unfair trade practices in the electrical steel market, according to the congressman’s office, which said the efforts resulted in GOES being assessed Section 232 tariffs under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.
However, a loophole developed that allowed an increase in minimally altered GOES from China and elsewhere to circumvent the tariffs by passing through Canada and Mexico, which could make America reliant on foreign nations for key components of its electrical grid.
The Commerce Department investigation is a positive step to ensure that doesn’t happen, according to Rep. Kelly’s office.
“As the last American producer of electrical steel products that are key components of the electrical grid, Cleveland-Cliffs owned AK Steel is a bedrock of our national security and the Butler economy,” said Rep. Kelly, who also thanked “Cleveland-Cliffs and the men and women of UAW 3303 for fighting alongside me to save these jobs.”