Mrvan, Congressional Steel Caucus members testify against surging imports

Imports of corrosion-resistant steel have been surging, jumping by 46% year-over-year in 2024.

The U.S. Department of Commerce launched an investigation last fall into whether steel companies in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam were violating trade laws by dumping cheap steel with an eye toward gaining long term market share. The United Steelworkers union and domestic steelmakers filed a trade case to slow rising imports of corrosion-resistant steel or CORE steel products, asking the federal government to impose antidumping and coutnervailing duties on the imports.

U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, D-Highland, and other members of the Congressional Steel Caucus testified in a tariff case before the International Trade Commission, arguing the foreign steel had been unfairly subsidized or sold below fair market value, hurting steelmakers and steelworkers. The quasi-judicial board is weighing tariffs as high as 195.23% on imports from Vietnam.

The targeted tariffs would be on top of the 50% tariffs the United States now imposed on almost all imports of steel made abroad.

"Our trade laws are crucial in protecting our thriving steel industry from other countries flooding our markets, pushing workers out of a job, and putting our industries out of production," Mrvan said. "I will continue to stand up for American workers, whose livelihoods depend on the full enforcement of our trade regulations."

The United States currently imports around $1.2 billion of steel products from Canada, $712 million from Mexico and $241 million from Vietnam, according to the International Trade Commission.

Congressional Steel Caucus members claim global steelmaking overcapacity is leading some foreign steel companies to flood the U.S. market with steel dumped below market price back in their home countries. They warned it affects the tens of thousands of jobs the domestic steel industry supports, asking for intervention that would put a halt to unfair trade and create a level playing field.

U.S. steelmakers are losing sales and revenue while steelmaking capacity goes underused in the United States, according to the Congressional Steel Caucus.

“It is vital for our national and economic security to have a robust steel industry and the thousands of jobs it supports," Congressional Steel Caucus Chairman Rick Crawford said. "That is why we must use every tool to prevent bad actors from deliberately engaging in unfair trade and undermining our domestic markets.”