Dayton Daily News Highlights Bipartisan Effort to Protect Ohio Workers from Illegal Imports

Washington, D.C. – In case you missed it in today’s Dayton Daily News, U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have called on the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to protect domestic producers of Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) from foreign competitors that use unfair and illegal trade practices. Their effort follows last week’s decision by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) to open a probe into allegations that nine countries are illegally selling steel pipe at unfairly low prices in the United States. 

Excerpts of the article are included below. The entire article can be found here.

Senators call for more protection against unfair competition
Dayton Daily News
July 30, 2013

Senators Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown this week called on the U.S. International Trade Commission to protect domestic steel pipe producers foreign competitors the legislators said use unfair and illegal trade practices. The two said their effort follows last week’s decision by the U.S. Department of Commerce to open a probe into allegations that nine countries are illegally selling steel pipe at unfairly low prices in the United States.

“Ohio-based companies…support many good-paying jobs in our state,” Portman said. “If the ITC does not stand up for these American manufactured goods and punish foreign companies who are flooding our markets with unfairly imported cheap products, our businesses and thousands of American workers are at risk.”
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The pipes are used for domestic oil exploration, particularly in the shale industry, and are produced in Ohio by companies including U. S. Steel in Lorain, Wheatland Tube Company in Warren, Vallourec Star in Youngstown, and TMK IPSCO in Brookfield. Each is among the plaintiffs accusing South Korea, India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and Ukraine of unfair and illegal trade practices.

OCTG imports from these countries have increased from 840,000 net tons in 2010 to more than 1,770,000 net tons in 2012, with the number continuing to rise, the senators said.