Public hearing
Aug. 7 becomes last step in recommendation to
President
WASHINGTON, July
27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United Steelworkers (USW) has
requested an appearance before the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) public hearing
scheduled Aug. 7 in the final step of a trade case in
which the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has determined that surging
low cost consumer tire imports from China have
damaged the domestic industry with lost jobs and factory shutdowns.
The USW advocates strong enforcement of a U.S. trade law at a timely
moment during the opening by President Obama of the U.S.-China Strategic and
Economic Dialogue in Washington.
Last month, a majority vote of the ITC found that tariff relief was
needed to urgently reduce tire imports. Evidence showed more than 5,100 domestic
consumer tire production jobs were lost between 2004-08 by the flood of Chinese
tire imports that undersold producers in the U.S. and caused market disruption. An
additional 3,000 jobs have been announced as being eliminated by tire plant
closures by the end of this year.
USW President Leo W. Gerard said, “Our
nation’s job loss numbers at tire factories dramatically understate the impact
China's flooding imports have caused in the
communities where our represented workers live. The consequences of lost tire
production jobs have extended to many thousands of other jobs in supporting
industries and suppliers that have also been lost.”
The ITC commissioners who found market disruption, unanimously
recommended that tariffs be placed across the board on passenger and light truck tires
from China -- 55 percent in year one, 45 percent
in year two and 35 percent in year three.
According to the submission filed with the USTR, the USW will be asking
the U.S. interagency group reviewing the remedy to be recommended to President
Obama that the ITC proposal should be supported. In addition, the USW wants the
remedy modified upwards – above the 55 percent duty advocated by the trade
commission in the first year.
Gerard explains, “We are urging a higher tariff in the first year so
U.S. tire workers get the full relief intended to prevent the undermining of any
frontloading of inventories by importers or Chinese exporters who are dumping
higher volumes of imports prior to the Sept. 17,
2009 decision deadline by the President.” The USW president adds, “Undermining
the ability of the proposed remedy to correct market disruption in the first
year is unacceptable.”
Under the Section 421 trade law provision for this case, the effective
date of any remedy provided by the President would be Oct.
2, 2009.
Consumer tire imports from China during
2004-08 have increased 215 percent by volume. Chinese tire producers have
submitted to the trade commission that projected additional growth in exports to the
U.S. in 2009-2010 would be up an additional eight million tires from the 46
million tires imported from last year.
USW data for 2004-08 shows the domestic industry has suffered massive
injury. Capacity by the tire companies is down 17.8 percent, and production is
down by 26.6 percent. Employment has been reduced by 14.2 percent along with
reductions in hours worked and wages paid. Net domestic sales were down 28
percent.
As pointed out by the USW, the ITC commissioners who voted on the remedy
were unanimous that there would be little adverse effect on U.S. consumers from
their recommended remedy.
Gerard noted studies done by communities with tire plants that have been
at risk have estimated the loss to the community from a tire plant closing are
as much as $1 billion and the total job losses are
a multiple of those at the plant. He said these studies were not done as part
of the 421 case, but by economic development agencies to understand the
possible effects from losing a major employer.
In a bipartisan letter on the China
tire trade case sent to the President on July 16 by
eleven U.S. Senators including Lindsay Graham
(R-SC), Richard Burr (R-SC), Arlen Specter (D-PA),
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), all calling for adoption of the ITC’s
recommendations. They wrote: “Across the country, Americans are increasingly
frustrated with the impacts of unfair trade practices on working families. The Section
421 case is an important test case in that regard and an important step in
regaining the public’s confidence in trade liberalization.”
Last Friday, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown
said: “It’s time for actions that benefit American workers and businesses that
protect consumers. It’s time for the administration to support the ‘Section
421’ case on certain Chinese tire imports.”
For more information on the USW’s Section 421 trade case against
Chinese tire imports: www.usw.org/tires
SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)