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Posted on 10/24/2001 11:04:45 AM PDT by Cacophonous

Steel Trap

For Bethlehem Steel, it’s too little too late. On October 15, the company that built the Golden Gate Bridge, Chicago's Merchandise Mart, and much of the New York skyline, filed Chapter 11. A surge of subsidized imports left it reeling, and depressed demand in the wake of September 11 brought the giant to its knees. “Despite nearly $300 million in net cost reductions since the middle of 1998, the company could not overcome the injury caused by record levels of unfairly traded steel imports and the slowing economy that have severely reduced prices, shipments, and production,” the nation’s third-largest steel-maker said in its obituary as Bethlehem joined 24 other U.S. steel companies that have gone dark since 1996.

This week, their case reached the International Trade Commission. In response to a June 6 request by President Bush to determine whether imports were damaging our domestic steel industry, the panel ruled that U.S. steel has indeed been harmed. The ITC now has 60 days to write a prescription, which will be forwarded to the President.

But it’s too late for Bethlehem – and may be too late for America.

As the nation rebuilds and ramps up for war, we are one of only two countries that cannot satisfy its own demand for steel. From aircraft carriers in the Indian Ocean to the girders that shore up our damaged Pentagon, America must now face the strategic implications of allowing this domestic industry to die. Over the last year, we’ve lost 8 million tons of capacity due to bankruptcies and cutbacks, and last quarter alone, the industry recorded a collective loss of $1.43 billion.

“When the civilian market is threatened by the glut of foreign imports, the military's capability is put at risk,” then Pennsylvania Governor, now head of Homeland Security Tom Ridge told the Trade Commission. “We all know the events of [Sept. 11] highlighted the need for a stable domestic steel industry. Not just steelworkers and their families -but all Americans- are made vulnerable by unfair imports."

The problem goes beyond bullets and bombs. Not only do we depend on foreign suppliers to feed our military machine, here at home, from water supplies to metro rails, steel supports the critical components of domestic defense. As the airlines collect their $15 billion bailout check and retailers and tourist traps press for a piece of the $90 million stimulus package, an industry more integral to national and homeland security than most any other may yet be sacrificed to protect failed trade policies

If American mills produced an inferior product through inefficient processes, the free market should rightly bolt their doors. But that’s not the case. In the late 80s, the U.S. steel industry underwent a painful restructuring and modernization process at the cost of $60 billion and 400,000 jobs. It emerged with 300% productivity gains and 90% lower emissions as the world leader in efficiency and environmental responsibility. But while American steel was self-correcting, the Asian currency crisis of 1997-98 sent overseas economies spiraling. Desperate for cash, foreign competitors began dumping subsidized steel well below our cost of production – while our government did nothing. As a result, in the last three years alone, imports have risen to 38 million tons, 10 million tons more than the average for the four years preceding. Domestic prices have plunged to twenty-year lows; 31,000 U.S. steelworkers have lost their jobs.

In his lament for burned-out Youngstown, rocker Bruce Springsteen sang, “Taconite, coke, and limestone fed my children, made my pay, And them smokestacks reaching like the arms of God into a beautiful sky of soot and clay…Well my daddy come on the Ohio Works when he come home from World War II, Now the yard’s just scrap and rubble. He said, ‘Them big boys did what Hitler couldn’t do.’ These mills they built the tanks and guns that won this country’s wars. We sent our sons to Korea and Vietnam, now we’re wondering what they were dying for…”

Let it be said that the next who fall in service die for a nation that honors its independent tradition, supports its vital industries, and refuses to auction security to the globe’s lowest bidder. The ITC has given Mr. Bush an opportunity to affirm the same; September 11 has given him a reason. America has proved she has steel in her spine. For the sake of our defense, both at home and abroad, he must also keep it within our grasp

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