As we approach the 2024 Senate elections in Pennsylvania, it is essential that we rally behind the Democratic candidate who has proven his commitment to the people of the state time and time again. That candidate is none other than Bob Casey.
Bob Casey has been a strong voice for the people of Pennsylvania since he was first elected to the Senate in 2006. He has fought tirelessly to protect the rights of working families, support small businesses, and promote economic growth across the state. He has been a champion of healthcare reform, advocating for accessible and affordable healthcare for all Pennsylvanians.
Throughout his years in the Senate, Bob Casey has consistently prioritized the needs of his constituents over partisan politics. He has worked across the aisle to find common ground and pass legislation that benefits the people of Pennsylvania. He has also been a vocal advocate for women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and civil rights.
As we look towards the future, it is crucial that we have leaders like Bob Casey in the Senate. He has proven time and time again that he has the experience, dedication, and passion to fight for the people of Pennsylvania and make a real difference in their lives.
So, let's come together and
show our support for Bob Casey as he runs for Senate in 2024. Together, we can
ensure that our voices are heard and that Pennsylvania continues to have a
strong and effective leader in the Senate.
Show your support for this campaign by endorsing it and sharing why!
September 18, 2024
Casey, Colleagues to Biden: Stop China’s Illegal Steel Surge, Protect Our Workers, Jobs, Manufacturers
Senators ramp up pressure on Administration to prevent China, other countries from surging steel into U.S. market via Mexico in violation of 2019 trade agreement, a practice that threatens American steel industry jobs, has contributed to plant closures
Casey has long pushed Administration to stop trade cheats from hurting PA steel workers and manufacturers
At Casey’s urging, Administration reached agreement with Mexico this year to crack down on Chinese steel dumping
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) joined a bipartisan group of his colleagues to urge President Joe Biden to protect the American industrial base by increasing tariffs on Mexican steel imports. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) illegally dumps steel into the U.S. market by transshipping steel through Mexico, which allows the PRC to evade tariffs and threatens the jobs of steelworkers in Pennsylvania and the Nation. At Casey’s urging, the Biden Administration took action recently to stop the unsustainable increase in Mexican steel imports since last year. Reimposing tariffs on Mexican steel imports at 2019 levels would build on this step by preventing the PRC from exploiting Mexico’s duty-free entry to the U.S.
“Stopping China’s abuse of USMCA and Mexico’s steel surge is about protecting American industry and building economic resilience. It is also about enforcing our trade deals. What is the point of reaching trade deals if such deals are not paired with effective enforcement?” wrote the Senators.
The Senators continued, “[We] must work with the Mexican government to ensure that our trading partnership is built not just on geographic proximity, but also on a shared goal of defending North American manufacturing jobs from the Chinese Communist Party.”
Joining Senator Casey to send the letter were U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Mike Braun (R-IN).
Currently, the PRC illegally dumps steel into the U.S. market by transshipping steel through Mexico before it enters the U.S. and by investing directly in production facilities in Mexico. Such actions are intended to evade U.S. tariffs and allow the PRC to continue to manipulate global steel markets. This exploitation of the 2019 United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement threatens the American steel industry and the jobs it provides to workers in Pennsylvania and across the country.
In a bipartisan push in December 2023, Casey demanded the Administration set a clear deadline to enforce its 2019 agreement with Mexico and urged the Administration to take aggressive action to counter the increase in Mexican steel imports if the country refuses to comply. Casey previously pushed the Trump Administration to protect the American steel industry from trade cheats. In July 2024, USTR reached an agreement with Mexico to prevent the PRC and other countries from illegally dumping steel into the U.S. market.
Casey’s Stop Mexico’s Steel Surge Act would reinstate 25 percent Section 232 tariffs on Mexican steel imports for no less than one year and empower the president to impose quotas or tariff rate quotas on specific goods where there have been major surges. The administration may only lift these tariffs once the Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative certify that Mexico has adopted policies bringing it into compliance with the 2019 agreement and are confident that Mexico will maintain these policies.
In April 2024, Casey and U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) successfully pushed the Biden Administration to investigate unfair trade practices by the CCP that undercut American shipbuilding, threaten our national security, and hurt American workers. Further, Casey called on President Biden to maintain Section 301 tariffs, a call the Administration heeded by raising tariffs on key sectors including steel and aluminum, semiconductors, and batteries.
This month, Senator Casey introduced comprehensive legislation to strengthen American competitiveness in the global economy, crack down on trade cheating, and protect against economic and cybersecurity threats from China. The Combat Chinese Economic Aggression Act will strengthen U.S. manufacturing and technology by pushing back against China and other countries of concern that seek to steal trade secrets and exert influence over American defense, manufacturing, infrastructure, telecommunications, and energy industries. The Market Economy Sourcing Act provision of that legislation would shut the backdoor to the U.S. economy that China has exploited to surge steel into the country via Mexico.
The full text of the letter to President Biden is below and the signed PDF can be found HERE.
Dear Mr. President:
We write to urge additional administrative action to stop Mexico’s unfair steel surge in violation of the 2019 Joint Statement on Section 232 Duties on Steel and Aluminum as well as China’s manipulation of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA). As you mention in your recent steel proclamation, it is vital to address China’s rampant exploitation of Mexico as an intermediary for the transshipment of goods. Mexico’s steel surge and China’s manipulation of USMCA significantly threaten our country’s industrial capacity and must also be promptly stopped. Accordingly, we ask that you reimpose duties on Mexican steel imports at 2019 levels and that you work to prevent Chinese firms from exploiting USMCA for its own benefit by shifting their facilities to Mexico.
In March 2018, President Trump exercised his authority under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to protect U.S. industrial security by imposing a 25 percent tariff on steel imports. A year later, the Trump Administration released a Joint Statement on Section 232 Duties on Steel and Aluminum with Mexico, which waived the 25 percent tariff of Mexican steel so long as Mexico maintained imports at historical levels. In the case of a surge, the joint statement provides the importing country the ability to impose duties of 25 percent for steel and 10 percent for aluminum. Imports of Mexican steel are now surging far in excess of historical levels of trade. Imports of Mexican steel conduit have soared to around 500 percent over the 2015-2017 baseline and may rise to 700 percent this year.
On July 10, 2024, your administration re-imposed a 25 percent tariff on Mexican steel melted or poured outside of North America. While this was an important step, it is to be insufficient because it did not apply tariffs to any steel melted and poured in Mexico itself and subsequently affected only 13 percent of total steel imports from Mexico. This step also did not include any measures to stop Chinese steelmakers from shifting their production to Mexico to exploit USMCA and further fuel the steel surge.
We have written to you repeatedly about this surge, expressing our concerns that it has resulted in steelworkers losing their jobs and steel companies having no choice but to defer hundreds of millions of dollars in investment. Along with a bipartisan coalition of Senators and Members of Congress, we also introduced legislation to require the Secretary of Commerce to reimpose 25 percent duties on all Mexican steel imports for no less than a year. However, legislation is not required to remedy these violations; the United States Trade Representative (USTR) already has the authority to raise duties on Mexican steel imports unilaterally. We urge your administration to use it.
We also urge your administration to expeditiously implement the revision to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Form 7501, announced on March 25, 2024. (OMB Control Number 1651-0022). This revision adds important information about where the steel used in the manufacturing of products was melted and poured, or in the case of aluminum, the countries where the largest and second largest volume of primary aluminum used was smelted. Such a change has the support of domestic steel and aluminum producers, who believe that these revisions will help enforce trade remedy laws and prevent circumvention of sanctions regimes.
It has been well documented that hundreds of multinational firms are shifting their production facilities from Asia to Mexico. This “nearshoring” is a consequence of U.S. tariffs on China, a risky and dwindling Chinese economy, and supply chain woes. While bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. is preferred, and policymakers should prioritize this objective, it is also a welcomed trend when Western companies bring manufacturing back to the Western Hemisphere writ large. Unfortunately, Chinese firms are exploiting this nearshoring trend to avoid paying tariffs on goods they export to the U.S. market. China’s foreign direct investment into Mexico has increased significantly, especially in manufacturing and services—two sectors in which China has notably not invested in other Latin American countries. Notable examples of Chinese firms moving into Mexico are automakers. Chery and MG have established facilities in Mexico, and BYD and SAIC are scouting potential sites. Innovation New Material Technology, China’s biggest producer of aluminum alloy bars is also building a $197 million aluminum plant in Mexico. China is also adding shipping capacity between China and Mexico so that these factories use inputs made in China.
Allowing Chinese firms—which routinely benefit from slave labor, stolen intellectual property, and massive state subsidies—to circumvent American trade enforcement and exploit our free trade agreements threatens American production. Our leaders must work diligently to replace Chinese production with American production, and that of our trading partners. Congress passed a free trade deal with Mexico—not China. Immediate action must be taken to prevent the Chinese Communist Party from exploiting USMCA and weaponizing this important trade deal.
Stopping China’s abuse of USMCA and Mexico’s steel surge is about protecting American industry and building economic resilience. It is also about enforcing our trade deals. What is the point of reaching trade deals if such deals are not paired with effective enforcement? Tough rhetoric will not serve American industry unless it is met with action. There are various issues on which your administration must work with the Mexican government to strengthen our relationship and bolster investor confidence—such as the independence of its judiciary, a more robust security policy, and the enforcement of immigration laws. But we must also focus on these two trade issues because a free trade agreement with the world’s largest economy is a privilege that will be reevaluated in 2026. All the while, we must work with the Mexican government to ensure that our trading partnership is built not just on geographic proximity, but also on a shared goal of defending North American manufacturing jobs from the Chinese Communist Party.
Thank you for your attention to these important issues. We ask that you respond in writing to the below no later than October 11, 2024:
Please detail your efforts to stop Chinese firms from exploiting Mexico’s duty-free entry to the United States. Similarly, please provide any efforts that the Mexican government has adopted to the same end.
Please describe your assessment of each Chinese industry that has established, is establishing, or which you suspect may establish production in Mexico and, of those, identify those which you think may injure American industry or threaten national security.
Please list the Mexican subsidies to Chinese firms of which you are aware.
What are you and the Mexican government doing to ensure that entry summaries are accurate and transshipments of Chinese goods from China are not undercounted?
Will you commit your administration to work with our offices on a legislative fix to China’s backdoor entry to the U.S?
###
