For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 5, 2001
Statement by the President Regarding a Multilateral Initiative on Steel
This Administration is committed to free trade
as an engine of growth. As part of our free trade agenda, we are
committed to ensuring that American industry and American workers can
compete on a level playing field. That is why, today, I am
announcing my intent to launch an initiative to respond to the
challenges facing the U.S. steel industry. This initiative will be
designed to restore market forces to world steel markets and eliminate
the practices that harm our steel industry and its workers.
The U.S. steel industry has been affected by a
50-year legacy of foreign government intervention in the market and
direct financial support of their steel industries. The result has been
significant excess capacity, inefficient production, and a glut of
steel on world markets.
My decision to pursue this initiative comes
after extensive consultations by Members of the Cabinet with our
industry, our steelworkers, and interested Members of
Congress. We have discussed the challenges facing U.S. steel
manufacturers, and we understand that we have a critical stake in a
healthy U.S. steel industry.
Thus, I intend to take the following
steps. First, I am directing the United States Trade
Representative, in cooperation with the Secretary of Commerce and
Secretary of the Treasury, to initiate negotiations with our trading
partners seeking the near-term elimination of inefficient excess
capacity in the steel industry worldwide, in a manner consistent with
applicable U.S. laws.
Second, I am directing the U.S. Trade
Representative, together with the Secretaries of Commerce and the
Treasury, to initiate negotiations on the rules that will govern steel
trade in the future and eliminate the underlying market-distorting
subsidies that led to the current conditions in the first
place. Absent strict disciplines barring government support,
direct or indirect, for inefficient steel-making capacity, the problems
confronting the U.S. steel industry -- and the steel industry worldwide
-- will only recur.
We see these negotiations -- and the goal of
restoring market forces -- as being in our interest and in the interest
of our trading partners and their steel industries. That is
why we would like to work cooperatively with our trading partners in
pursuing this initiative.
Third, I am directing the U.S. Trade
Representative to request the initiation of an investigation of injury
to the United States industry by the International Trade Commission
under section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974. This action is
consistent with our WTO obligations.
This three-part strategy, coupled with further
restructuring of the U.S. industry, should help the industry meet the
challenges it faces. I look forward to working together with
the industry, the steelworkers, Congress, and our international trading
partners in support of this important initiative.
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