Letter to Penny Pritzker, Secretary of Commerce - Southern Illinois Delegation Pursues Answers on Foreign Steel Dumping

Letter

Dear Secretary Pritzker:

We are writing to request a meeting to discuss trade enforcement related matters, including the status of three anti-dumping and countervailing duty petitions filed by several companies in the domestic steel industry. Your prompt attention to this matter is greatly appreciated.

As you may know, on June 2, 2015, July 28, 2015 and August 11, 2015 several companies in the domestic steel industry filed anti-dumping and countervailing duty remedy petitions alleging unfairly traded imports of corrosion-resistant, cold-rolled steel and hot-rolled steel from various nations. All of these cases have been certified to proceed by the International Trade Commission.

On June 29, 2015, the President signed into law provisions of the American Trade Enforcement Effectiveness Act (Pub. Law No. 114-27, §§ 501-507, 129 STAT. 383-387) to improve the applicability of anti-dumping and countervailing duty remedies to unfairly and illegally traded imports. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the implementation of these provisions in general, and in the recently filed petitions in particular.

This matter is urgent. On October 6, 2015, United States Steel Corporation announced the potential idling of its Granite City Works plant located in Granite City, Illinois. Among the factors influencing this decision are unfairly traded imports. More than 2,000 workers at the facility could be negatively impacted.

Once again, we appreciate your consideration of this request. If you have further questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact us or Mark Ratto with Representative Mike Bost, Frank Santana with Representative Rodney Davis or Jim Goldenstein with Representative John Shimkus. We look forward to hearing from you.

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