WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) today raised an alarm over the U.S. International Trade Commission’s (USITC) ruling against imposing anti-dumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) on aluminum extrusions from 14 countries, despite the Department of Commerce’s findings of foreign dumping and subsidies. The USITC’s ruling, which underscores the limitations of current trade remedies, exposes the urgent need for comprehensive, across-the-board trade protections to secure U.S. industry and address structural imbalances that undermine American workers and manufacturers. The decision also comes on the heels of 1,000 Americans losing their jobs at a tin mill steel facility in Weirton, West Virginia, after the USITC similarly decided that imports found to be illegally dumped and subsidized from China and elsewhere did not sufficiently harm U.S. producers.
“USITC’s ruling against the domestic aluminum industry and its workers exposes the futility of relying solely on hyper-specific AD/CVD cases to address today’s rampant trade abuses,” said Michael Stumo, CEO of CPA. “These cases impose a high financial burden on American manufacturers, require millions in legal fees, and offer no guarantee of relief—even when foreign dumping and subsidies are clearly identified. This piecemeal approach has proven wholly inadequate as the U.S. continues to hemorrhage demand and production capacity to trade-surplus countries, many of which practice state-backed overproduction and exploit our market openness to their advantage.”
Broader Problems in U.S. Trade Policy
The U.S. operates as the world’s largest trade deficit country, with domestic demand increasingly diverted overseas to trade-surplus countries that overproduce and under consume. America has the lowest WTO bound tariff rate average of any country, at just 3.4%.These trade deficits are worsened by a persistently overvalued U.S. dollar, which disadvantages American exports and attracts imports on favorable terms. Nations such as China, Japan, and the EU enjoy asymmetrical access to U.S. markets, yet reciprocate minimally, maintaining higher tariffs, subsidies, and non-tariff barriers to protect their own industries and jobs.
The U.S. aluminum industry has faced significant harm due to surging imports. A recent CPA economic analysis found that aluminum imports into the U.S. have increased by 380% since 2015, leading to the loss of nearly 20,000 American jobs. Countries such as Mexico, which continue to benefit from duty-free status despite violating trade agreements, contribute heavily to this surge, undermining the domestic aluminum industry’s role in sectors ranging from aerospace and defense to renewable energy.
“This ruling highlights the inadequacy and near irrelevance of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules that restrict U.S. trade responses to hyper targeted enforcement cases. The WTO framework was built for a different era and has since become a mechanism that limits our ability to defend against modern, broader beggar-thy-neighbor trade practices,” Stumo continued. “As long as U.S. producers rely solely on these restrictive—and expensive—AD/CVD processes, we leave our industries defenseless. Even if they win, foreign companies engage in trans-shipment or production re-location to avoid the duties a few months later.”
The next administration needs to act much more boldly to protect our national and economic security and generate supply-side growth in the economy. These actions should include:
- Section 232 Tariffs: Immediately broadening the scope of existing Section 232 tariffs to include all aluminum, iron and steel products—without exception—and downstream products critical to national security.
- Permanent Across-the-Board Tariffs: Implementing global tariffs to protect domestic industry, raise revenue, and reduce the trade deficit, while giving certainty for those investing in domestic production.
- Specific Tariffs and Quotas: Moving beyond reliance on ‘ad valorem’ (percentage of value) tariffs because valuations are based off of foreign invoices and easily gamed, and instead move towards specific tariffs priced in U.S. currency on specific units of measure, as well as quotas.
“The USITC decision once again made clear that our government must act much more comprehensively to defend our economy against surplus country industrial policies,” Stumo concluded.
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