For Immediate Release

Public Relations Division
Public Affairs Department
1170 Eighth Avenue
Bethlehem, PA 18016-7699
(610) 694-3711 - Phone
(610) 694-1509 - Fax

June 11, 1999 – The U.S. International Trade Commission today, by a unanimous vote of 6-0 found that the American steel industry producing hot-rolled carbon steel flat products is injured because of dumped imports from Japan. This vote means that those imports will now be subject to antidumping duties ranging from 17% to 67%. The ITC’s final determinations in companion cases brought against Russia and Brazil are scheduled for late summer.

The ITC’s unanimous vote clearly establishes that the flood of unfairly-traded imports that began in 1997 has caused enormous damage to the American steel industry. In reaching its decision, the ITC properly rejected claims to the contrary by the Japanese producers.

This ITC decision is a further step in the process necessary to end the crisis in our industry. The ITC’s affirmative vote demonstrates that the industry’s claim that it has been severely injured by a flood of unfairly-traded imports is well-founded. At the same time, however, the crisis continues, and will not significantly improve unless and until the industry receives the full measure of relief that is provided by our trade laws and requested in the hot-rolled cases and in other cases that it has filed more recently. In that context, the industry remains very concerned that the U.S. government will end some of these cases by entering into settlement agreements that take our rights away from us, and that do not provide meaningful relief against countries that have clearly violated U.S. law, and caused tremendous damage to the industry in the process.

Since late 1997, the U.S. market has been the target of dumped and subsidized steel imports of hot-rolled carbon steel flat and other products from countries directly and indirectly affected by the Asian, Russian and South American financial crises. Imports of such products from Japan increased by more than 1,000% from 1996 to 1998 and imports significantly increased from Russia, Brazil and other countries.