Steelworkers Unite Cheap Imports Stir Debate In D.C.

Lawmakers from steel-producing states offered legislation Wednesday to help a struggling steel industry combat the rising tide of cheap steel imports.

The announcement came as thousands of steelworkers held a rally at the Capitol and planned a march to the White House.

“This surge of imports in steel has been devastating and unfair,” said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Steel Caucus. The legislation “will improve the posture of industry and improve the standing of the workers themselves.”

Steel imports reached record levels in 1998 and has been blamed for at least 10,000 layoffs and bankruptcies at some domestic steel companies. U.S. steel producers and Steelworkers say they cannot compete with foreign steel that they say is entering the nation at prices dramatically below production costs.

“We can work for zero wages and they still can’t compete against foreign steel at the prices they are coming in,” said George Becker, president of the United Steelworkers of America.

More than a thousand stee workers blared horns and held signs urging policy-makers to “Stand Up for Steel” outside the Capitol. Inside, the Senate prepared for another day of the impeachment trial against the president.

Although the steel industry has allies among Democrats and Republicans from steel-producing states, passing legislation wouldn’t be easy, because Republicans from other states oppose measures viewed as harming free trade.

The legislation offered by Specter and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., would lower standards for proving injury in trade disputes, making it easier for the industry to obtain quotas and broad tariffs against foreign steel.

The measure also would set up an import permitting and monitoring program so the industry could prove injury earlier.