COMPANY PRODUCT INQUIRY INFORMATION COMMUNITY NEWS Welcome to Wanjoo Metals       HOME > CUSTOMER CENTER > NEWS TITLE  Enforce trade laws to save jobs in domestic steel industry WRITER   administrator DATE   2014-05-13 10:47:12 Domestic steelmakers, including my employer, U.S. Steel Corp. in Granite City, the biggest domestic producer of pipes and tubes sold to oil and gas extracting companies, stand to lose thousands of jobs because of imports being sold more cheaply than the foreign competitor can make them — it’s called dumping. It’s also called cheating. U.S. Steel has filed a trade case against South Korea based on the alarmingly rapid and intense surge in this steel product imported into the U.S. market. There is an abundance of evidence and no lingering doubt that this is being illegally dumped — at prices below normal value and in deceptive ways designed to circumvent U.S. and international trade laws. A negative Department of Commerce ruling in July could potentially devastate the domestic steel industry and particularly U.S. Steel’s operations here in Granite City. These aren’t just thousands of steelworker jobs. For every good manufacturing job lost, seven additional jobs are lost in surrounding communities. A mere two years have passed since our leaders in Washington, D.C., signed on to the Korea Free Trade Agreement. We should not be reliving the same story where foreign competitors violate trade laws, as they did in 2002 when 45 domestic steel manufacturers filed bankruptcy because of unenforced trade laws depressing steel prices to an unsustainable level and in 2008 when the Department of Commerce determined that China was dumping steel in the U.S. Since that time, both the United Steelworkers and U.S. Steel have made major sacrifices with capital investments and across-the-board employee cross-training to become world competitive. Over $1.6 billion has been invested by U.S. pipe manufacturers during the past two years. No amount of cleverness and no high-tech “jobs of tomorrow” and no extra training can replace the millions of middle-class jobs that keep disappearing from our economy. There are more pacts in the hopper, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership. We were promised that the "glories of globalization" would shower prosperity across our land, but the downward spiral of our middle class standard of living continues. We urge the entire community to join the Alliance for American Manufacturing, the United Steelworkers and U.S. Steel and attend a rally at 3 p.m. May 16 at Civic Park in Granite City. This is everyone’s chance to make your voice heard and demand that Congress pressure the Department of Commerce to do what is right. Enforce trade laws — penalize cheaters — and save our families’ future. Doug May • Collinsville [ L I S T ] WanJoo Metals All rights reserved. TEL : +82-2-585-2581, 2571,   FAX : +82-2-585-2587, 8799 FL.2 DaedeokPlaza Bldg, 206, Geumgok-Dong, Bundang-Gu, Seongnam-Si, Gyeonggi-Do 463-480, Korea