FMA, TPA join 13 other associations to advise Trump against steel import restrictions

The Fabricators & Manufacturers Association Intl. and Tube & Pipe Association, both of Elgin, Ill., along with 13 other trade associations representing more than 30,000 U.S. steel-using manufacturers that employ 1 million American workers, have sent a letter to President Trump and other senior trade officials regarding Section 232 restrictions on basic steel imports.

The letter warns that these restrictions will “adversely impact national security, the economy, and the steel industry itself because it will undermine [U.S. steel-using manufacturers’] competitiveness and our ability to make value-added products here.”

The letter continues, “In that event, these products will be made elsewhere, resulting in lost business and jobs for our members and reduced purchases from the domestic basic steel industry. Everyone in the U.S. steel supply chain will be damaged by restrictions on steel imports.”

The letter points out that the 1 million U.S. jobs represented by these steel-using associations compares to 80,000 jobs in the domestic steel industry, and that domestic steel manufacturers are reporting their best earnings in more than a decade. The letter also notes that more than 160 antidumping and countervailing duties are in place against 37 countries and 25 categories of basic steel products.

“The associations urge President Trump to avoid any decision which would do harm to so many downstream steel manufacturing companies and other steel consumers, our employees, and our customers, with little or no additional protection to the basic steel industry, while at the same time causing great economic harm to numerous other sectors of the U.S. economy,” the letter states.