From: ndallen@r-node.pci.on.ca (Nigel Allen)
Subject: Stelco says U.S. ruling on steel dumping ignores market realities
Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 04:32:16 GMT

Here is a press release from Stelco Inc.
 U.S. Ruling on Steel Dumping Ignores Market Reality
 To: Business Desk
 Contact: Don Belch, 202-333-7400, or Bob Ballantyne, 416-528-2511,
          both of Stelco Inc.; or
          Susan Wysoki, 202-944-5034

   WASHINGTON, Jan. 27  -- The United States Commerce
Department's announcement that 19 countries, including Canada, have
dumped flat-rolled steel into the United States ignores the reality
of steel trade between Canada and the United States, according to
Stelco Inc., the largest Canadian-based steel producer.
   At a news conference in Washington today, Stelco called on the new
administration of U.S. President Clinton and the Canadian government
under Prime Minister Mulroney to take action to deal with the glaring
omission of rules governing steel trade from the Free Trade Agreement
between the two countries.
   "This ruling against Canadian steel is absurd and destructive,"
said Frederick H. Telmer, chairman and chief executive officer of
Hamilton, Ontario-based Stelco.  "It completely fails to recognize
the reality of the North American steel industry today.  The reality
is that the United States and Canada form an integrated market for
steel that is unique in the world."
   Telmer said it is illogical to group Canadian-based producers --
who face the same economic forces and challenges as their U.S.
counterparts and who serve U.S.-based customers through thousands of
transactions every week -- with offshore producers who dump shiploads
of excess production into the United States and Canada.
   The Commerce Department announcement is the result of complaints
launched by U.S. steel producers against 21 countries in June, 1992.
Under existing regulations, Canadian producers had no option but to
launch a series of complaints against foreign steel producers,
including those from the United States, in August.
   Today's preliminary determination is only one battle in the trade
war in steel, Telmer said, but that war is escalating and could prove
to be destructive to both countries.
   Stelco today released the findings of an economic study completed
by Pennsylvania-based AUS consultants.  The study showed that the
value of Canadian-made steel sold into the United States is far
outweighed by the economic benefits of Canadian steel companies'
investments and purchases of steel and related commodities and
services in the United States.
   The spending of Canadian steel companies in the U.S. supports more
than $1.8 billion (in U.S. dollars) in U.S. output, more than $500
million in household income, and ultimately more than 18,000 jobs,
the study found.  [A separate release on the AUS study was issued by
Stelco today].
   This economic benefit is over and above the thousands of tons of
steel U.S. companies sell into Canada each year, which represent
about 60 percent of all Canadian steel imports.
   Potential duties on steel crossing the border from either
direction would amount to an additional tax on North American
industries that depend on steel.  The additional costs would either
have to be absorbed or built into prices, hurting the competitive
position of this continent's industrial base, Telmer said.
   "We at Stelco, along with other Canadian-based steel companies,
have been advocating action to replace the inappropriate and obsolete
regulations on steel trade between our two countries," he said.  "We
need the commitment of both governments to the speedy resolution of
this mutually destructive dispute and the creation of a new structure
that recognizes the fact of the integrated market for steel and the
economic and social benefits it brings."
   "We are calling on the Canadian government to finish the job it
began with the Free Trade Agreement," Telmer said.  "And we are
calling on the new administration of President Clinton to act on its
pledge to focus on removing the obstacles to economic growth."
   Founded in 1910, Stelco Inc. is a North American steel company
selling products to North American industry.  In addition to its
wholly owned business units in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta, Stelco
has ownership interests in ore and coal properties in Michigan,
Minnesota, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.  The company
owns 40 percent of Bliss and Laughlin of Harvey, Ill., which is a
North America's second largest producer of cold drawn bars.  Stelco
shares trade on the major Canadian stock exchanges.
 -30-
-- 
Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario    ndallen@r-node.pci.on.ca
Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada