WIRE AND WIRE PRODUCTS CAUCUS
Congressman Sam Graves (R-MO) has re-constituted the bipartisan Wire and Wire Products Caucus for the current Congress. AWPA encourages all House offices to consider joining the Caucus, which educates Congress, the Executive Branch, and the broader policy community on the important contributions of domestic wire and wire products manufacturing to our nation’s economic and national security.
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TRADE ENFORCEMENT LEGISLATION
AWPA supports the following bipartisan trade law strengthening measures designed to address tactics by adversarial trading partners, such as China, that continue to evade our trade laws:
The Leveling the Playing Field Act 2.0 (S. 1856 / H.R. 3882) would update U.S. trade laws to ensure that domestic industries are able to pursue and rely on remedies to address new and evolving unfair trade practices such as cross-border subsidies (e.g., China’s “Belt and Road”) and “country hopping” to evade application of antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) orders.
The Fighting Trade Cheats Act (S. 805 / H.R. 2667) would give Customs and Border Protection (CBP) more details to combat and deter customs fraud. Specifically, the bill enhances monetary penalties for fraudulent and grossly negligent violations; temporarily suspends imports by bad actors and their affiliates; and adopts new enforcement tools that unlock private resources in addition to those used by CBP.
AWPA recently hosted a webinar on these important bills.
STEEL WIRE IMPORTS
SIMA Program
Through its Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) system, the Department of Commerce collects and publishes “early warning” steel import data, allowing the domestic industry to monitor trade trends in near real time. The SIMA program was established in 2005 and its product scope was expanded in 2020 to mirror that of the Section 232 steel tariff program. AWPA is seeking to (1) expand SIMA tracking to cover downstream products such as wire mesh and PC strand; and (2) for those wire products currently covered by the SIMA system, ensure the data is accurate.
Expanding SIMA to downstream wire products would provide more timely data to help domestic companies and other stakeholders better monitor import trends. Particularly as countries seeking to evade our trade laws move “downstream” in the steel supply chain, access to this monitoring tool is necessary. SIMA expansion would be particularly useful now that the system requires data on the original country of melt and pour for covered steel imports. This melt and pour data would help identify potential transshipment and circumvention of the U.S. antidumping and countervailing duty orders that protect our industry and workers from unfair trade; Section 232 duties and quotas; and Section 301 tariffs on imports from China.
Additionally, AWPA is concerned about the accuracy of SIMA data. For example, in some instances, SIMA shows countries of melt and pour with no melt capacity. Ensuring the accuracy of all SIMA data will help the domestic industry monitor and understand important trade trends.
AWPA regularly engages with the SIMA team at Commerce and recently held a webinar for the membership demonstrating the utility of the SIMA dashboard. Contact the GR team with any questions.
Mexican Imports
AWPA remains concerned about the level of Mexican carbon and galvanized wire imports entering the U.S. market, as well as the lack of transparency from the Mexican government with respect to trade flows, including steel imports into Mexico, as this may mask circumvention.
BUY AMERICA
AWPA strongly supports “Buy America” laws that provide preferences for the use of American-made products – including steel wire and wire products – in our nation’s infrastructure. Buy America policies help ensure that dollars invested in taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects are reinvested in U.S. companies and U.S. workers, strengthening our domestic manufacturing base and providing an important multiplier effect throughout the supply chain.
Specifically, AWPA supports the landmark Build America, Buy America Act (BABA), enacted in November 2021 as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. BABA established a domestic content procurement preference for all federal financial assistance obligated for infrastructure projects. Subject to exceptions, BABA bars the award of federal financial assistance for infrastructure unless all of the iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction materials used in the project are produced in the United States. For iron and steel products, “produced in the United States” means that “all manufacturing processes from the initial melting stage through the application of coatings, occurred in the United States.”
AWPA recently submitted a letter to NTIA regarding the application of Buy America to the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program.
AWPA’s December 2022 webinar on Buy America provides additional information:
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