<html> <head> <meta HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> <meta NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Microsoft FrontPage 3.0"> <meta NAME="Template" CONTENT="C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT OFFICE\OFFICE\html.dot"> <title>USWA President Says December Import Data Portends Disaster for American Steel Industry</title> </head> <body LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#800080" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"> USWA NEWS RELEASE For Distribution, Thursday, January 28, 1999 Contact: Gary Hubbard (USWA/Wasington) 202/778-4384 <dir> <dir> Marco Trbovich (USWA/Pittsburgh) 412/562-2442 </dir> </dir> USWA President Says December Import Data Portends Disaster for American Steel Industry Washington, D.C. (Jan. 28) George Becker, President of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), said today that release of the U.S. Commerce Departments report on steel imports "offers clear evidence that jawboning and trade case filings simply will not prevent the collapse of the American steel industry." While acknowledging a modest decline in the December level of imports, Becker said that if dumping continues at last months levels, "it will wipe out a basic industry that employs 150,000 American workers. Because major exporters like Japan havent agreed to a thing, theres nothing to stop them from dumping more in the future." Becker said the December import figures dramatize the need for immediate passage of legislation imposing temporary quotas on steel imports at pre-crisis levels, coupled with a comprehensive policy to prevent U.S. markets from continuing to be used as the dumping ground for the worldwide glut of steel. The politically powerful 750,000-member USWA is pressuring for quota legislation that will be introduced in Congress in the near future by U.S. Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-IN) and U.S. Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-WV). Such a bill, if enacted, would curtail dumping by requiring our trading partners to limit steel shipments into the U.S. to pre-crisis levels. The USWA cites the December figures released by the Commerce Department as still astronomically higher than pre-crisis levels. "If you only compare December with November," Becker said, "its like missing the forest by looking at a tree." He said Decembers numbers reveal that historically high steel imports from Japan and Russia are still sky high. "By annualizing the December number, you come up with foreign dumping thats eating up almost 30 percent of the market a lot more than before the crisis." He added that while there had been a slight reduction in imports from Russia and Japan, other countries are "joining the parade of nations illegally dumping steel." Becker pointed out that the December numbers reveal Japan is still dumping at a rate 170 percent higher than it was two years ago. "Those who celebrate these unprecedented levels of lawlessness," he said, "wont be fooling anybody but themselves." # # # <hr> <a href="http://www.fairtradewatch.org/Standup.html">Return to Stand Up for Steel Index</a> Return to <a href="index.html">Press Release Directory</a> <a href="../default2.htm" target="_top">HOME</a> | <a href="../frameset_organize.html" target="_top">ORGANIZE</a> | <a href="../frameset_news.html" target="_top">NEWS</a> | <a href="../frameset_Services.html" target="_top">SERVICES</a> | <a href="../frameset_map.html" target="_top">MAP</a> | <a href="../frameset_rapid.html" target="_top">RAPID RESPONSE</a> | <a href="../frameset_help.html" target="_top">HELP</a> | <a href="../frameset_feedback.html" target="_top">FEEDBACK</a> </body> </html>