Bethlehem Steel Corporation
For Immediate Release

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 18, 1999 - Five leading U.S. steel producers are suing to overturn suspension or settlement agreements that allow dumped and subsidized imports of hot-rolled steel from Russia and Brazil to enter the United States without paying the antidumping or countervailing duties that have been established through trade cases brought by the companies.

Bethlehem Steel Corporation, U.S. Steel Group, a Unit of USX Corporation, Ispat Inland Inc., LTV Steel Company and National Steel Corporation have filed the suits against the U.S. Department of Commerce in the Court of International Trade. The Department of Commerce entered into the agreements with the governments of Brazil and Russia.

The agreements prevent entry of antidumping and countervailing duty orders on unfairly-traded Brazilian and Russian imports. Since late 1997, the U.S. market has been the focus of dumped and subsidized steel imports of hot-rolled carbon steel flat products. Imports from Russia increased 364 percent from 1996 to 1998, while imports from Brazil increased 78 percent during the same period. On August 16, 1999, the International Trade Commission found that these massive, unfairly-traded imports have materially injured the U.S. steel industry.

The lawsuits allege that the Department had no authority to conclude the challenged agreements. The Department of Commerce ignored the well founded objectives of our companies, and numerous statutory restrictions on the use of suspension agreements, which deprive the injured domestic industry and its workers of their rights which have been established in the cases in accordance with our laws. In taking away these rights, the suspension agreements have prevented the domestic industry from receiving adequate relief against imports from countries that have been found to have clearly violated U.S. law, and caused tremendous damage to the domestic industry in the process.

The Department of Commerce previously found dumping margins for Russian imports ranging from 73.59 percent to 184.56 percent. In the case of Brazil, the Department of Commerce has found dumping margins ranging from 41.27 percent to 43.4 percent and subsidy rates ranging from 6.35 percent to 9.67 percent. If these suspension agreements had not been entered into, importers of products from these countries would have had to have paid additional estimated duties in these amounts on all sales in the U.S.

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