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Duty-sharing Byrd Amendment Repealed
21 December 2005
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The Senate repealed a key manufacturing
subsidy in narrowly passing a final budget bill Wednesday, but
compromised to allow U.S. companies that rely on it to keep receiving
tariff revenues until their foreign competitors stop illegal
practices.
The 2000 law known as the Byrd amendment, after
sponsor Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., had redirected about $1 billion in
fees from government to corporate coffers through September. The largest
chunk, $205 million, went to steel producer Timken Co. of Canton,
Ohio.
Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine, who wrote an earlier version of
the duty-sharing law in 1999, was one of just five Republicans to vote
against the budget bill, forcing Vice President Dick Cheney to vote to
break a 50-50 tie. He said he was disappointed the law would no longer
be able to protect manufacturing jobs, particularly in Ohio.
"This is about helping the victims," DeWine said. "The
money was plowed back into job creation in Ohio and it was working. This
hurts."
The law redirects tariffs on foreign goods from the
U.S. treasury to manufacturers that file illegal dumping complaints.
"Dumping" is the term for imports sold in the U.S. market at prices
below American production costs.
No more companies will be able to receive Byrd money
after Oct. 1, 2007.
The United Steelworkers of America, which represents
850,000 employees and most of those at companies affected by the Byrd
amendment, says an original House version of the bill would have been
worse.
"A straight-up repeal would have been the worst
possible thing, but even with the compromise, the problem is there can
be no new beneficiaries," said Bill Klinefelter, the Steelworkers' chief
lobbyist.
World Trade Organization members have protested the
U.S. crackdown on dumping, but U.S. negotiators at WTO talks in Hong
Kong last week declined to change anti-dumping laws.
Timken spokesman Jeff Dafler said the company can take
solace in that.
"We trust the government will use existing trade laws
in an effort to stop continued dumping, which still threatens U.S. jobs
and investment," he said.
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