Steel industry group blasts back on accusations of subsidies
AISI calls authors of recent report "representatives of the government of China"
By Tom Stundza -- Purchasing, 11/13/2007 5:59:00 AM
Accused of possibly violating trade laws through subsidies, the domestic steel industry responded yesterday by attacking the trade-lawyer authors of the report as being “registered foreign agent representatives of the government of China.”As reported yesterday on Purchasing.com, the American Institute for International Steel, a trade group representing steel buyers and importers, has calculated that U.S. steelmakers have received about $17 billion in subsidies since 2000 in violation of World Trade Organization (WTO) policies that prohibit subsidies.
In its response, the American Iron and Steel Institute claims the report is “a rehash of a seven-year old discredited and erroneous report.” That report, issued in 2000, detailed more than $100 billion in subsidies and trade restraints benefiting the domestic steel industry and detailing an alleged three-decade capture of U.S. trade policy.
The AISI dismisses the report’s authors and calls them “apologists for Chinese subsidies, currency manipulation and mercantilism.”
Some steel users and buyers in the U.S. are upset with government trade commission efforts to keep foreign-made or offshore steel out of the U.S. market through trade laws and subsidies. The AISI statement also claims that the U.S. steel industry has made “legitimate use of U.S. trade laws against dumped and subsidized, injurious imports ($7 billion) and insurance reimbursements by the Pension Benefits Guarantee Corp. ($7.8 billion).”
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