Fighting China’s Unfair Trade Practices, Leveling the Playing Field for American Workers (Rep. Don Manzullo)
July 9th, 2008
Yesterday, I had the privilege of testifying before the International Trade Commission on behalf of more than 500 union workers I represent from Freeport, Illinois, who make the best Off-The-Road tires in the world but have been getting hammered by Chinese companies who have been illegally selling those tires into the United States at below market rates. For the past three years, those Chinese companies have been receiving illegal subsidies from the Chinese government and dumping those products in the United States at a fraction of the price of what it costs the American companies to make the same tires.
Thankfully, we have Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duty laws to penalize foreign companies that do not follow the rules of fair trade. Both the ITC and the U.S. Dept. of Commerce issued preliminary determinations that the 15 Chinese companies had broken our trade laws and materially injured Freeport’s Titan Tire company and the United Steelworkers who brought the trade cases on behalf of themselves and thousands of other tire workers in America. And yesterday, the Commerce Department issued a final determination that confirmed the dumping and illegal subsidies and set tariffs up to 210 percent on Chinese OTR tires coming into the United States. If the ITC follows suit and issues a final determination that the American companies and United Steelworkers were harmed by the unfair trade practices, the new tariffs will take full effect and the Chinese will face major long-term penalties for their illegal actions.
I’m confident that the workers at Freeport’s Titan Tire plant can produce and sell the most affordable and highest quality tire if given the chance to compete fairly, but right now they are not competing on a level playing field. Nearly 200 workers are on-call ready to come back to work in Freeport to meet the growing domestic demand for these specialized tires. China illegally subsidizes its industries and manipulates its currency to unfairly give an advantage to its manufacturers over American workers, and those Chinese companies must be punished in this case. I thank the Commerce Department for its final determination and urge the ITC to confirm their initial findings so we can slap tariffs on these offending Chinese companies that are threatening American jobs.
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