In response to requests from the Administration for public comments on a number of trade-related executive actions by the president, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) submitted input to the Department of Commerce on the causes of significant trade deficits and on China’s non-market economy (NME) status.
In the trade deficits submission, Kevin Dempsey, AISI Senior Vice President for Public Policy, wrote, “Foreign unfair trade practices can act as barriers to US exports and investment, restrict producers’ access to raw materials, and create an uneven playing field in international competition by unfairly advantaging certain countries’ manufacturers to the detriment of US producers. These include export restrictions, import barriers, investment barriers, subsidies, anticompetitive conduct of state-owned enterprises and barriers in government procurement policies.”
Dempsey said trade relief provided by some of the steel trade cases has somewhat reduced the volume of imports, but high volumes of steel continue to enter the US market from countries not subject to AD/CVD relief, from countries where the AD/CVD relief has proven to be ineffective, and as a result of schemes by foreign producers and importers to evade the AD/CVD laws.
AISI’s comments included an analysis of the countries with the most significant trade deficits with the steel industry, including Vietnam, with whom the US had a trade deficit of $493 million in 2016, and China with whom the steel trade deficit exceeded 3 million net tons in 2014.
AISI also filed comments on China’s non-market economy status, and stated that “China remains very much a state-directed, nonmarket economy country, and does not meet the basic requirements set forth by US statutes and the Department of Commerce for a functioning market economy.”