The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, October 22, 1981, Image 9

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    THE BATTALION Page 9 ,
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1981 1
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United Press International
HOUSTON — American steel
producers, angered and worried
that foreign producers are dump
ing tons of cheap steel into the
United States, plan to challenge
their foreign competitors with leg
al action.
David Roderick, chairman of
United States Steel Corp., Tues
day said U.S. Steel will file as
many as 14 anti-dumping com
plaints and countervailing-duty
cases over the next six months to
stop the flow of cheap foreign steel
into the American market.
The heads of several steel pro
ducers also expressed concern to
the American Iron and Steel Insti
tute about foreign underselling.
Republic Steel Corp. Chair
man William]. DeLancey empha
sized that the American producers
do not want a protected market.
“The fact is, our industry be
nefits from foreign trade,” DeLan
cey said. “We want free trade, but
only if it is also fair trade, and that
is all we seek in objecting to
dumped and subsidized imports.”
Industry statistics for 1981 show
steel is being imported at record
rates — up more than two million
tons for the first eight months of
1981 over the same period in 1980
— and foreign steel is claiming a
larger portion of the available
supply. August imports alone
totalled 2.2 million tons, the high
est single-month figure on record,
and accounted for 25 percent of
domestic sales.
Although there is a system to
track the price of foreign steel im
ported into the American market.
Texas politicians
bagged in Russia
for early arrival
Roderick said it does not work and
he plans to file complaints with the
Treasury Department to stop fore
ign underselling.
“With the breakdown of the
effectiveness of the Trigger-Price
Mechanism in monitoring and
regulating foreign imports, and
with the mechanism proving use
less in preventing dumping, I be
lieve we have no other recourse
but to seek relief provided us
under the law, he said.
The mechanism provides a re
ference for detecting potential
violations of U.S. trade law by
establishing price grades for im
ported steel products based on
manufacture, shipping and insur
ance costs.
“Its enforcement is not strin
gent enough,” Roderick said.
“The lag between setting the trig
ger price and measuring its effect
is so great the problem has be
come academic.”
Roderick said it’s too early to
tell what effect the complaints will
have. “We are not sending signals
to commerce or Congress; we are
using the legal means at our dis
posal to insure out survival.”
Roderick did not specify who
the target in the complaints was,
but said U.S. Steel had compiled
evidence for five or six cases
already and was working on about
eight others.
If the company can prove the
anti-dumping complaints, the
government can fine importers
who bring foreign steel into the
country at prices that are lower
than the steel producers’ home-
market price, or lower than manu
facturing costs, an industry
spokesman said.
The countervailing duty cases,
if proved, will provide a floating
tariff on steel products from fore
ign producers that get govern
ment subsidies. The extra duty
would approximate the amount of
the subsidy, the spokesman said.
United Press International
AUSTIN — Rep. Gibson D.
Lewis, D-Fort Worth, and former
Rep. Richard C. Slack may think
twice before including the Soviet
Union in their next six-week,
around-the-world hunting safari.
When Lewis and Slack arrived
at the Russian border after hunt-
ingin Mongolia about three weeks
ago, officials confiscated their
passports and visas because they
were not scheduled to enter Rus
sia for two more days. Russian offi
cials, however, did not stop them
from continuing on to Moscow.
“When we landed the first time
inside Russia, the agent told us.
Hey, this is too early,”’ Lewis
said. “They took our visas away,
and our passports, too. So when
we got to Moscow, as we walked
off the plane, one of those guys
said we were in the country illeg
ally.”
Without their documents, the
two men were ordered to a ram
shackle hotel with an armed guard
at the door. There they spent the
next five days without hot water
nor heat despite temperatures of
35 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
“We finally got out of there by
bluffing a little over the airline re
servations, fudging a little about
the time,” Slack said.
Their troubles were not yet
over, however.
Although the Soviets allowed
them to fly on to Bombay, they
were not allowed to take their
clothes, weapons, or hunting
trophies with them.
Lewis, front-runner for Texas
House Speaker in 1983, began a
barrage of telephone calls to Mos
cow authorities from Bombay,
asking that the expensive baggage
be sent to India.
“What finally worked was when
(Lewis) Telexed at the bottom of
the message, ‘Believed stolen by
Russians at Moscow airport,”’
Slack said. “That must have done
it, because the bags arrived in In
dia the next night.”
With their baggage returned,
the pair continued on through In
dia, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Tokyo,
Hawaii and Alaska before return
ing to Texas last week.
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