FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

June 26, 2001

(Washington, DC) -- The Specialty Steel Industry of North America (SSINA) today expressed strong support for President Bush's initiative requesting section 201 investigations by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC).

"SSINA deeply appreciates the President's leadership on this issue. The Bush Administration today asked the ITC to initiate section 201 investigations to determine whether the huge surge of imports in recent years is causing serious injury to domestic producers, which we believe is the case. Most of these imports are unfairly traded under U.S. law and World Trade Organization rules, as we have proven in numerous antidumping and countervailing duty cases. We are deeply concerned, however, about the potential for foreign producers shifting exports into product lines not covered by this 201 investigation, such as stainless steel sheet and strip and stainless steel coiled plate," said H. L. Kephart, SSINA Chairman and President and Chief Executive Officer of G. O. Carlson, Inc., a specialty steel producer in Thorndale, Pennsylvania.

The Bush Administration requested section 201 investigations on a variety of specialty steel products, including stainless steel bar, stainless steel wire rod, stainless steel wire, stainless steel angles, stainless steel cut plate, electrical steel and alloy tool steel. Under the provisions of section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974, the ITC undertakes a 6-month investigation to determine the relationship between increased imports and the financial condition of the industry. If the cases reach affirmative decisions at the ITC, the President then has 60 days to determine the remedy, which can include quotas on imports, additional import tariffs, tariff-rate quotas, and negotiated agreements with foreign countries. Import quotas have been successfully employed in past section 201 cases on steel.

"We respectfully urge the Bush Administration to consider the future initiation of additional investigations on specialty steel product lines not covered by the announcement today. In particular, stainless steel sheet and strip and stainless steel coiled plate were not covered in today's announcement. In part, this is because SSINA members filed successful antidumping and countervailing duty cases on these products, and imports declined somewhat. However, in recent months conditions in the domestic market have deteriorated considerably. We believe that substantial dumping continues in the U.S. marketplace. We will closely monitor developments and, if and when appropriate, will ask the Bush Administration to initiate additional section 201 cases on affected products," Kephart said.

SSINA is a Washington, DC-based trade association representing virtually all continental specialty steel producers. Specialty steels are high technology, high value stainless and other specialty alloy products.

While shipments of specialty steel account for only 2% of all steel shipped in North America, annual revenues of approximately $8 billion account for 14% of the total value of all steel shipped.

David A. Hartquist, an international trade attorney with the Washington, DC law firm of Collier Shannon Scott, PLLC, serves as lead counsel to SSINA.