Following is the text of Representative Bart Stupak's March 5 speech in the House of Representatives from the Congressional Record:

COMPROMISE RESULTS IN SELL-OUT OF IRON ORE INDUSTRY
House of Representatives
March 05, 2002

Mr. STUPAK. Mr. Speaker, I take to the floor tonight to talk about President Bush's proposed remedies on steel imports. Unfortunately, for those of us who represent iron ore miners in northern Minnesota and northern Michigan, the remedy proposed by the President today does little to help us.

We must look back to December of last year in which the ITC, the International Trade Commission, by a six to nothing vote said illegal steel, steel products, slab steel, was being dumped in this country to the great harm of the U.S. steel industry. With slab steel, that replaces iron ore pellets. In order to make steel, we need a raw product like iron ore pellets or slab steel.

In order to corner the market, foreign countries have been dumping slab steel in this country at exorbitant amounts since 1998. Every time slab steel comes into our country, it hurts our iron ore miners. In fact, up in my district, the Empire Mine has just shut down. Over 800 workers have been laid off and all the managerial and administrative people have been laid off.

So we were hoping today that President Bush would give us a strong steel remedy. We asked for 40 percent over 4 years, as allowable under U.S. law. Although the report was put forth today, and some in the media have called the tariff and quota on imported steel a compromise, I believe the iron ore industry may have been sacrificed in making that compromise. We in the iron ore industry have basically been sold out.

The ITC, the International Trade Commission, caught nations cheating under import pricing; and as I said earlier, by a six to nothing vote, they agreed those imports were hurting the domestic steel and the iron ore industry.

If we take a look at what the President did today, he said we will allow 5.4 million tons of imported slabs to come into the United States, but we will not count Mexico or Canadian slab steel coming into the United States. So basically, we are at about 7 million tons a year. That is exactly what they are importing right now. So therefore, the remedy does nothing for those of us who have been harmed over the last 4 years by illegal imports. Because this import level of 7 million for slab steel has already caused mines to shut down and layoffs in northern Michigan and elsewhere, we have really won nothing with the President's proposed remedy.

If we take a look at it, Mexico has been used more than once by countries throughout the world as an export platform. By that I mean to get around the President's proposals today, his remedies today, other countries can export their product to Mexico, and then from Mexico it will come into the United States. Mexico, as I said earlier, the President made an exemption for them as to steel products. Therefore, any country who wants to get around the new trade remedies proposed by the President will just ship their product to Mexico, it suddenly becomes a Mexican product, and it comes into the United States, it comes into the United States as not being part of the quota put forth by the Bush administration.

If we take a look at it, and in fact, one of the recent articles that appeared right after the President made his recommendation was from the California Steel Institute. They said, "We are pleased that the President recognized that slabs are different from finished products and excluded slab from the tariff measure imposed on finished steel products." Those who use slabs already recognize that the President did nothing to stop or stem the tide of illegal slabs into this country. The vice-chair of the ITC was quoted today in explaining their treatment of slab, and said that it wanted "to avoid causing harm to domestic steel producers that have legitimate needs to continue to import slabs." The vice-chair, Deanna Okun, added that a tariff on slab "would have a potentially severe impact on the members of the domestic industry that need a reliable source of slab." Reliable source.

The iron ore industry in my district has been there for over 150 years. One cannot get much more reliable than men and women going day in and day out, working in the iron ore mines for 150 years to provide America with the basic raw material it needs to produce steel, being iron ore pellets.

The California Steel Institute went on to say, "We fought hard to convince the U.S. Government to treat slabs separately from finished steel. As a raw material that is virtually nonexistent in the U.S. market, slab is fundamentally different from finished steel products such as hot bands and plate." Yes, it is different, because those of us in this country use iron ore as opposed to cheap imported slabs.

I should note that the California Steel Institute that I have been commenting on here tonight, 50 percent is owned by CBRD, a Brazilian iron ore company, and the other 50 percent is owned by a Japanese company. So while California steel industries are talking about how they have no remedy or how the slab remedy proposed by the President does not hurt them, they are already foreign owned. They will use Mexico as an export platform, and they will just sidestep these proposed remedies.

The California steel industry and others who have used slab steel realize that the President's remedy is nothing, and slab was not hurt. In fact, they are pleased with the remedy the President put forth. We in the iron ore industry and those who represent iron ore miners are not pleased. Iron mines are as reliable as the day is long. The miners have been there for us through all the world wars. They are loyal, hard-working Americans; and now they have just basically been exported out of this country.

I previously passed an amendment last year, a "melted and poured" amendment, which basically says that any steel used in the United States defense industry must be from steel that is melted and poured here in the United States. I will be offering this amendment again in the next 30 to 60 days on the supplemental appropriation bill; and every possible piece of legislation that it is germane to, I will be offering this amendment. I and others who represent iron ore miners will not give up, we will not sell out, we will not be shortchanged, and we will not shortchange our miners. We plan to be here day in and day out to continue to stand up for our iron ore miners.