Trade’s O.K. — But Only If the Rules are Fair

By Elizabeth Brotherton-Bunch
Apr 09 2015 |
AAM joined steelworkers nationwide in 2014 to rally against the surge in oil country tubular goods (OCTG) imports from countries such as South Korea. The Commerce Department and International Trade Commission found significant steel dumping had taken place and issued tariffs on OCTG products. However, getting to that solution took a long time, and workers and companies suffered during the process. That’s why it is so important that clear guidelines are put in place — and are strictly enforced — from the start when new trade agreements are negotiated.

There’s a chance to help American workers and businesses, but there isn’t much time.

President Obama and members of Congress are closer than ever to reaching an agreement on historic trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. 

It's now up to people like you to make sure the TPP creates a level playing field for American workers and businesses — and that Congress and the president enforce the laws already on the books.

As we’ve said time and again here at the Alliance for American Manufacturing, American workers can out-compete anyone. But the rules must be fair.

Many industries now face unprecedented unfair trade threats, including from foreign nations that are manipulating their currency or dumping heavily subsidized products into our market. This distorts prices and leads to layoffs.

Take what’s happening in the steel industry right now. Steel imports increased by a record 38 percent last year, and there already has been a 36 percent surge in imports this year compared to the same period in 2014.

The result? Job loss. Nearly 6,000 jobs have been lost in the past year due to the surge of steel imports, Michael Rippey, chairman of Arcelor Mittal USA, recently told Congress.

Unfortunately, businesses are forced to close plants and lay off workers before they can petition for relief under our trade laws. This makes no sense, as United Steelworkers International Vice President Tom Conway recently told Congress:

“The simple truth is, when we win a case, we simply stabilize the market — we rarely get back to where we were. We are ratcheting down our industrial sectors into oblivion. In the process, we hemorrhage good jobs just like is happening right now in the steel industry.”

That’s why it is so important that policymakers get it right in new trade agreements, and why it is so important they hold our trading partners accountable when they cheat.