The United Steelworkers (USW) issued a statement in advance of this week's meeting between US President Trump and China's President Xi.
“For too long, America has been buried under the weight of increasing trade deficits with China. In sector after sector, China's non-market, Communist Party-led economy has flooded the US market with its products, most of which are unfairly traded,” the statement said. “The result has been millions of lost jobs, closed factories, and outsourced, off-shored production.”
The USW noted that China has increased its overcapacity year-after-year “in direct conflict with market forces,” with excess capacity “dumped and subsidized, and flooded into the global marketplace.” The USW said that despite the US economic recovery, the steel sector has not shared sufficiently in the economy's growth.
“Since 2000, the year before China joined the World Trade Organization, Chinese steelmaking capacity has increased to 10 times that of the United States,” the statement said. “China now has 1.2 billion tons of capacity with 2015 steelmaking capacity, exceeding the combined capacity of the United States, European Union, Japan and Russia. Every year, China's capacity continues to rise.”
The USW said that “America cannot afford more of China's broken promises,” and the union is hoping Presidents Trump and Xi to produce results that will reverse the continuing buildup of steelmaking capacity in China.
“The tough rhetoric of last year's US presidential campaign needs to be turned into measurable and sustained changes in our trade relationship with China,” the statement said. “Enough is enough.”