AISI Urges Congressional Committee Leadership to Support Trade Remedy Bills

Last week, AISI sent a letter to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House Committee on Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committee in support of the Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act, to crack down on unfair trade practices and enhance the enforcement tools needed to combat repeat offenders of U.S. trade remedy laws. Read the full letter here.  

Our trade laws have not kept up with the unfair trade practices of China and other nations that circumvent and evade trade enforcement measures and subsidize steel production. For example, enabled by its “Belt and Road Initiative, China has been expanding its subsidized steel production into Southeast Asia. “Cross-border subsidies” like these are not currently subject to our trade remedy laws. 

To address this and other critical trade enforcement concerns, AISI urges the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee to incorporate the provisions of the Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act (H.R. 3882/S. 1856), in any trade legislation that moves through Congress this year. This legislation expressly gives the U.S. Department of Commerce the authority to use the countervailing duty laws to address the growing problem of cross-border subsidies.  

Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act has garnered broad bipartisan support. For example, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party released a detailed  report  last December that provided several recommendations to address strategic competition between the U.S. and China — including a recommendation for enactment of the Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act.   

Strengthening our trade remedy laws is essential to ensuring that our government has every tool available to fight for the American steel industry and our workers. 

Learn more about AISI’s support of Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act in this press release.