Washington, D.C., February 22, 1999. Bethlehem Steel Corporation, U.S. Steel Group, a unit of USX Corporation, LTV Steel Company, Ispat/Inland Inc., National Steel Corp., Weirton Steel, Gulf States Steel, Inc., Ipsco Steel Inc., Gallatin Steel, Steel Dynamics, and the Independent Steel Workers Union made the following statement in response to the announcement that the Administration has reached agreements with the Russian government to settle the hot-rolled steel dumping case and to limit other steel exports to the U.S.

We continue to oppose a suspension agreement. It is contrary to applicable laws and is inconsistent with the Administration's own recent critical circumstances finding. Further, it is contrary to the plan to respond to steel imports which the President submitted to the Congress in January.

While we welcome the extremely high preliminary margins ranging from 71 to 218% found by the Department in its investigation, we deeply regret that the Department does not want to allow this prescribed remedy to go into effect.

Imports of Russian hot-rolled have increased 700% from 508,000 metric tons in 1995 to 3,468,000 metric tons in 1998, and they have been sold at dumped prices substantially below the cost to produce them. This has caused serious injury to the American steel industry and the loss of thousands of steelworker jobs.

The suspension agreement will authorize Russia to continue to dump steel in America, which will continue to cause serious injury to our industry. The tons of unfairly traded steel that the Administration is going to allow Russia, at 750,000 metric tons per year, will still allow Russia to be the largest single supplier to the U.S. market. The pricing level given to the Russians of $255 per metric ton will both allow continued dumping and allow inefficient Russian producers to undercut and damage efficient U.S. producers.

We have consistently requested the Administration to permit our laws to be enforced as Congress intended, but by entering this Agreement our rights have been taken away from us.

We regret this development and will work to convince the Administration that the proposed agreement is not in the best interest of the nation or our industry. We are also requesting Congress to have a prompt hearing about this matter. If the Administration proceeds with this agreement, we will take appropriate legal action.

We also oppose the comprehensive steel agreement negotiated with the Russians. We would support such an agreement only if it is a part of a global solution to the serious injury being caused by unfairly traded steel. Any agreement with Russia must be a part of an Administration initiated and supported � 201 action on all steel products which will result in global quantitative restrictions, minimum prices, an adequate enforcement mechanism, and a moratorium on further shipments until the inventory of dumped steel has been cleared.

While all the details of the Russian agreement are not available, we are disappointed that they will be permitted to ship at a rate well above the 1996 precrisis level.

We do have concern over the serious economic problems facing Russia, but to the extent the United States provides financial and other aid, surely we should do this in behalf of the United States from the Federal Treasury and not by sacrificing the jobs and property of a specific private industry sector such as our modern and world class American steel industry.