U.S. Trade Commission Votes Duties on Rebar Imports

USW Gerard: Rebar from Mexico & Turkey have devastated our jobs

Contact: Roy Houseman (202) 288-3573; rhouseman@usw.org

(Washington, DC, Oct. 14)  — In a significant victory for American workers and producers of steel concrete reinforcing bar -- the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) today found that the rebar industry was materially injured by unfairly traded imports from Mexico and Turkey. All six commissioners voted in the affirmative.

Leo W. Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers (USW), said: “Increased volumes of unfairly traded Turkish and Mexican rebar have taken a devastating toll on the domestic industry, its workers, and their families. These duty orders on imports will help stop the flooding of our market, taking our sales, and killing our jobs.”

The USW president testified last month before the ITC to say that the U.S. rebar industry is critical to American workers where there are lost jobs and reduced hours at rebar facilities in Oklahoma, New Jersey, and Texas.

As a result of the ITC’s affirmative injury determination, the Department of Commerce will now impose antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders against Mexican and Turkish producers of rebar. AD margins on Mexican imports range from 20.58 percent to 66.70 percent, while the CVD margin on Turkish imports is 1.25 percent.

The ITC determination is in response to a Sept. 4, 2013 petition supported by the USW and the Rebar Trade Action Coalition (RTAC), which is a coalition of five major U.S. rebar manufacturers. The petition said unfairly dumped rebar from Mexico and Turkey, plus subsidized rebar from Turkey was injuring American jobs and threatening the industry with additional injury.

Alan H. Price, chair of Wiley Rein’s International Trade Practice and lead counsel to the RTAC, commended the determination. “We are very pleased with the ITC’s results, which confirm that unfairly traded imports of rebar from Mexico and Turkey are harming U.S. producers and workers.”

The USW is the largest private-sector union in North America, representing 850,000 workers employed in metals, mining, rubber, paper and forestry, oil refining and renewable energy products, chemicals, health care, and municipal governments. For more: www.usw.org/.

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