James Oberstar: “the crisis in steel is not over. The International Trade Commission of the U.S. Department of Commerce has ruled that…”

“the crisis in steel is not over. The International Trade Commission of the U.S. Department of Commerce has ruled that foreign steel imports are coming into this country at below-cost production in many cases, below cost of U.S. products, and are being, in the technical terms, dumped in the U.S. marketplace. The Department of Commerce is now proceeding in the second phase of this unfair trade practice determining injury. The Clinton administration, through the Secretary of Commerce, Secretary Daley, and Secretary Rubin at Treasury, have moved smartly to impose counterveiling duties and put companies on notice in this country to post bond or cash to cover the cost between the unfair price and the U.S. market price. We are now in the injury phase of this proceeding, an excruciating fair, time-consuming process, the most fair process of any country in the world trade community for determining unfair trade. In fact, it is so fair that I am afraid that American steel mills and in Minnesota taconite plants will be out of business before they come to the conclusion, the Department of Commerce, that there is injury, that these counterveiling duties should be imposed, and the level trading field reestablished in steel. We ought to act decisively now. The Senate ought to pass the bipartisan Steel Recovery Act, because imports from Japan in March were up 36 percent, Brazil up 54 percent, Korea up 11 percent, and Indonesia tripled its exports in March to the United States.”