The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) has stated that the US government needs to update its current trade laws to tackle dumping, circumvention and other unfair trade practices, while drawing attention to China's trade-distorting policies.
AISI and other groups representing the domestic steel industry such as Steel Manufacturers Association, United Steel Workers and Specialty Steel Industry of North America have urged the US Senate to pass the Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act, allowing the Department of Commerce to deal with circumvention of trade laws and unfair trade practices.
"US antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) laws have not been updated since 2015. As a result, they have not kept up with the efforts of many entities to circumvent and evade US trade enforcement measures," Kevin Dempsey, president and CEO of AISI, stated.
Mr. Dempsey has submitted the AISI's concerns regarding China's failure to comply with the World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments to the Office of the US Trade Representative, expressing that China's continued use of massive subsidies and other trade-distorting measures that violate its WTO obligations adversely impact US steelmakers.
Also, the AISI official highlighted the importance of enhancing antidumping and countervailing laws, which are significant in terms of providing legal recourse for unfairly traded products to domestic producers.
"AD/CVD laws provide domestic industries with a legal remedy to combat unfairly traded imports from around the world. For the steel industry alone, the Commerce currently has 309 AD/CVD orders in place on steel-related products from 45 different countries, highlighting the prevalence of unfair trade in our sector and the importance of full and vigorous enforcement of [these] laws," he added
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