The Democratic front-runner visits an Indiana steel facility and promises to take on China.
Hillary Clinton came up big in the Democratic primaries on Tuesday night, taking a step forward in her campaign to become her party’s nominee.
But before the polls closed that evening, Clinton spent the day in northern Indiana, where she toured a couple of manufacturing plants, including the Munster Steel facility in Hammond. Clinton pledged to do something about the steel imports crisis during her visit, calling China’s dumping of steel products into the United States “illegal, pure and simple.”
As the Post-Tribune reports, Clinton specifically promised to stand up to China:
“Steel is crucial to our manufacturing base, crucial to our national security and I will not let this vital industry disappear. I’m going to make the steel industry’s survival one of my top priorities. Now, I’ve gone toe-to-toe with China’s top leaders on some very tough issues. And as president, I will go to bat for all our trades, our steelworkers, our ironworkers, everyone. We’re going to use every tool we possibly can against China for their illegal action.”
Clinton also touted her $10 billion plan to revitalize manufacturing, along with her Manufacturing Renaissance Tax Credit that’s designed to help communities hurt by manufacturing job loss.
Now, the Alliance for American Manufacturing is a nonpartisan organization, so we’ll note that Clinton isn’t the only candidate out there calling for action on steel.
On the Republican side, front-runner Donald Trump (who also came up big on Tuesday night) has promised he would bring steel jobs back from overseas, which resonated on the campaign trail, particularly in states like Pennsylvania. And talking about manufacturing job loss has been a key part of Trump’s success, as we’ve previously noted.
But the presidential election is still months away, and steelworkers and companies across the nation are hurting now because of China’s continued trade cheating and out-of-control steel production.
On Tuesday, U.S. Steel filed a major trade case designed to level the playing field. Last week, the Obama administration joined with the European Union and several other nations to issue a strongly-worded statement against China’s unchecked steel overcapacity, and promised to take action if China didn’t do something concrete to address the problem.
You can do something too. Tell the Commerce Department and the U.S. Trade Representative to implement an action plan to address the crisis.