Mrvan Leads Congressional Steel Caucus Testimony to ITC on Unfair Imports of Rebar

Washington, DC – Today, Rep. Frank Mrvan, Vice Chairman of the Congressional Steel Caucus, along with Congressional Steel Caucus Chairman Rick Crawford (AR-01), submitted testimony to the International Trade Commission (ITC) during their hearing on unfair imports of rebar from several countries. 

The text of the testimony submitted to the ITC is below and a pdf is available here. 

“We write today in strong support of affirmative finding in the ITC’s five-year sunset review of antidumping duties on unfairly traded imports of steel concrete reinforcing bar (“rebar”) from Belarus, China, Indonesia, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, and Ukraine. 

“As Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Congressional Steel Caucus, we represent workers and facilities manufacturing steel and rebar products, including the United Steelworkers and the U.S. manufacturers which filed the original petitions, and we believe these trade remedies are critical to the economic vitality of the U.S. steel industry and its workers. 

“Rebar strengthens our nation’s buildings, roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure.  The imposition of antidumping duties has ensured that steel producers have the certainty to make significant investments to expand our country’s rebar production capabilities and invest in our workers.  We believe that the potential removal of these antidumping duties would unnecessarily threaten the industry at a crucial time for the U.S. infrastructure investments.

“A recent review by the Department of Commerce found that if the trade remedies were not continued, producers in these seven countries would resume dumping rebar into the United States at margins ranging from 17% to 233%.  This domestic industry has been materially injured by several waves of unfairly traded imports in recent years, and it now faces growing global capacity that increasingly targets the U.S. market.  We are concerned that these imports would depress U.S. prices, injure U.S. producers and have a devastating impact on the investments being made to enhance U.S. manufacturing competitiveness. 

“In Northwest Indiana, in Arkansas, and across the country, workers and their families rely on the domestic steel industry’s ability to compete on a level playing field.  The full and strong enforcement of U.S. anti-dumping duty laws is needed to ensure true market competition for rebar products, which are critical to the success of our nation's economy.

“We thank the Commission for its serious consideration of the facts in today’s case, and for its dedication to upholding and enforcing our trade laws.”

The Congressional Steel Caucus is a bipartisan group of over 100 Members of Congress dedicated to supporting the health and strength of the American steel industry and its workforce.

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