Mesabi Tribune

By Lee Bloomquist

Two Minnesota federal lawmakers from opposing parties are on common ground on one mining topic.

Keeping steel antidumping and countervailing duty orders in place.

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Republican Eighth District Rep. Pete Stauber both told the U.S. International Trade Commission Thursday that duties on imported steel should remain.

Stauber said by phone Thursday he's concerned the Biden administration is looking at lifting steel tariffs.

“We're hearing the Biden administration is considering removing the (Section) 232 tariffs,” Stauber said. “I am adamantly opposed to removing the tariffs and allowing China to dump steel in this country.”

Klobuchar said in her testimony that before the tariffs went into effect, more than half of the mining operations on the Iron Range had been idled and the domestic steel industry had been losing sales and market share to underpriced foreign competitors.

People in northeast Minnesota know the sting of steel dumping, idling taconite plants and factories and costing workers good-paying mining and manufacturing jobs, she said.

“The steel industry matters in America,” Klobuchar said in her testimony. “It matters for our workers, it matters for consumers, and it matters for our future. We can't afford to go backwards. And we must move to make sure American businesses can compete today and for generations to come. The continuation of these tariffs can help ensure that domestic steel has an even playing field.”

Thursday's hearing focused on corrosion-resistant steel products from China, India, Italy, Korea, and Taiwan.

Another U.S. International Trade Commission hearing on steel imports, focusing on cold-rolled steel, is Tuesday.

Surges of steel imports have frequently caused havoc in northeastern Minnesota's iron ore industry and the nation's steel industry.

Often, the result is plant shutdowns and layoffs.

In 2017, 38.1 million net tons of steel imports poured into the country.

In 2018, Section 232 tariffs of 25 percent were placed on imported steel under President Donald Trump.

Steel imports fell to 22 million net tons in 2020, but in 2021 rose to 31.4 million net tons, the highest level since 2018, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Buoyed by strong steel prices, America's steel industry has bounced back with record profits and huge profit-sharing checks for blue-collar workers.

But Stauber and others are worried it could all change.

“We're hearing the administration is getting pressure from outside sources to remove the tariffs,” Stauber said. “We must not allow it. We have to recognize that communist country (China) wants to shut down the Iron Range.”

Rep. Dave Lislegard of Aurora, a former steelworker, is calling on both major political parties, steelworkers and companies to work together to keep tariffs in place and protect jobs.

“I stand with Sen. Klobuchar and Rep. Stauber who testified today in support of keeping the Section 232 tariffs in place,” Lislegard said. “These tariffs have prevented China from dumping cheap steel and have protected good paying mining jobs here on the Iron Range.”

Tom Conway, United Steelworkers International president, also testified Thursday about keeping antidumping and countervailing duty orders that were put into place six years ago on flat-rolled steel products, including corrosion-resistant steel, he said.

Without continuation of duties, new steel industry investments, re-opened facilities, better wages, new research and development, and next generation products, would be undermined, he said.

“We've weathered the crisis, we've withstood a pandemic and we're recovering,” Conway said. “But the recovery in domestic steel manufacturing may be short-lived if these orders are not continued. The investments being made now will never pay off if imports are allowed to surge back in at low prices and injure the domestic steel industry.”

Stauber said the Iron Range continues to enable 100 percent melted, poured, and rolled steel to be produced in the United States.

“Right now, more than ever, having a fully integrated domestic steel industry is in our nation's economic and national security best interests,” Stauber said in the hearing. “We've seen first-hand how supply chains can easily fall into crises, how unprovoked aggression can increase market uncertainty, and how non-market actors like China continue to abuse the rules-based trading system to our disadvantage and have the ability to cut Americans off from necessary goods. That is why it is so fundamentally important for us to have control over the upstream steel supply chain. That begins with the mines in my home district, responsible for 80 percent of iron ore mined in the U.S.”

Earlier this year, the Biden administration announced tariff-quota deals with the European Union and Japan under Section 232.

Under the tariff-quota system, pre-determined amounts of steel can enter the United States until reaching an annual quota, at which time Section 232 tariffs are levied.

Stauber says everyone in northeastern Minnesota knows what will happen if Section 232 tariffs are removed.

“We know what's going to happen,” Stauber said by phone. “They're going to steel dump and undercut prices.”

He's also angry over the administration's positions on the mining of copper, nickel, cobalt and platinum group minerals in northeastern Minnesota.

“This administration does not seem to want to allow American workers and mines to prosper,” Stauber said. “I've talked to the companies and the union workers. They know what will happen. It will shut down the mines here and I will not allow that to happen.”

Whether Section 232 tariffs will be lifted remains to be seen, Stauber said.

“We have to watch the actions of this administration, not just their words,” Stauber said.