New Democrats Reiterate Call for Trade Enforcement Efforts, Urge OCTG Scrutiny
Nearly 30 members of the New Democratic Coalition, a pro-trade group of House lawmakers, wrote to Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman urging them to further scrutinize industry allegations of South Korean Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) dumping into the U.S. market . The Commerce Department ruled in February to not suspend liquidation or impose an antidumping duty cash deposit requirement on South Korean OCTG, after preliminarily finding that South Korean firms did not dump the products (see 14022425).
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The South Korean OCTG investigation represents an opportunity for Commerce to enforce U.S. law in a case that has “nationwide economic implications,” said the letter, led by Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis. “We are concerned by reports that America’s steel industry is facing a surge of dumped and subsidized foreign steel that is causing serious harm to our domestic industry,” said the letter. “As the Commerce Department continues the investigation, we ask that you fully consider the domestic industry’s allegations, ensure you are using accurate data and objective methodologies, and take action against any unfair dumping to the fullest extent of the law.”
The United Steel Workers International praised the letter in a July 10 statement. “Too often other nations target the U.S. market to fuel their own economic policies,” said the organization’s president Leo Gerard in a statement (here). "These practices have increasingly resulted in the downsizing of manufacturing and the loss of good, family-supportive jobs, as companies have offshored and outsourced their production.” More than 150 House members in a recent letter, led by Steel Caucus leaders Tim Murphy, R-Pa., and Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., sent a similar letter to the Commerce Department in June (see 14061921).