On Thursday, the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS) issued a statement with regard to the September 4 trade case filing against rebar from Turkey and Mexico. The domestic reinforcing bar industry, after over five years of weak markets for its most important source of demand, nonresidential construction, is again looking to the US government's trade laws to remove certain import competition it believes is unfair, the AIIS response said.
"Government sponsored trade protection has never solved demand related market weakness, and it will not now. Weak demand creates intensified competition and if the competition comes from other US domestic companies, no law is available to domestic companies to use. But should foreign suppliers to the US market act in the very same way in difficult markets, the domestic industry all too often has resorted to protectionist trade case filings," said David Phelps, president, AIIS.
"We regret our domestic industry deems this filing as necessary when many we speak with believe the shared marketplace is suffering more from severely extended and depressed activity levels than from import issues. International steel markets are competitive and the global rebar market is indeed one of the most competitive. Moreover, the US has suffered from weak demand since the beginning of the infamous market turmoil of mid-2008. With weak demand and a weak dollar, competition has been challenging for all suppliers to the rebar market. A responsibly shared supply profile of domestic and import product however is important to our customers and creates jobs and manufacturing competitiveness for all the downstream customers and ultimately all of us as consumers. The experience of the US trade laws has shown that they do not solve the problems of domestic producers which would be better served instead with more pro-manufacturing tax and regulatory policies by our government as solutions to the problems long facing the non-residential construction market and therefore rebar producers. The AIIS stands for free and responsible trade in steel and now we will need to let the trade legal process work itself out at the International Trade Commission and Department of Commerce regarding the allegations in these cases. Again however, history has shown trade protection is not the answer," said John Foster, Chairman, AIIS.