For years, United Steelworkers members at tire companies including Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. in Findlay, Ohio, have experienced severe competitive disadvantages because of unfairly traded foreign imports.
While U.S. trade remedy laws are supposed to provide relief to U.S. companies and their workers when they are cheated, time and time again, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) fails to enforce these laws.
In 2009, President Obama imposed tariffs on Chinese tire imports to fight back against the systemic dumping of tires in the U.S. market.
While additional antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders have been in place on certain Chinese passenger vehicle and light truck (PVLT) imports since then, other foreign competitors continue to use unfair practices to gain market share in the U.S.
Meanwhile, President Trump and his administration roll back rule after rule that protect workers from being cheated out of the wages they've earned. The president promised to fight for American workers. He has broken that promise over and over and over.
That's why earlier this month, I led a bipartisan letter to the ITC, calling for the full and fair consideration to the United Steelworkers' petitions in these cases of unfairly traded imports.
The United Steelworkers are petitioning for relief for their workers in the industry and to ensure the U.S. tire industry can compete on a level playing field.
I fully support the USW's petitions to levy AD and CVD on PVLT tires from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
These countries' unfair practices hurt our domestic industry and workers — I will continue to push for the strong enforcement of U.S. trade remedy laws.
If you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work. It is time we give our domestic producers a fighting chance.
