Steel and other manufacturing industries are the backbone of our economy. A strong manufacturing sector creates significant benefits for society, including good-paying jobs, investment in research and development, critical materials for our national defense, and high-value exports. Yet manufacturing in North America faces significant challenges to its international competitiveness due to a host of factors, including burdensome tax rates, inadequate investment in infrastructure, increasing regulatory overreach and, most importantly, foreign unfair trade practices. These practices have resulted in massive global steel overcapacity causing a surge of steel imports into the U.S. market and job losses across the country affecting local communities. A concerted pro-manufacturing policy agenda is needed to reverse this unsustainable trend.

The impact public policies have on manufacturers must be carefully considered to ensure both economic growth and our national security. The United States cannot continue to lose its manufacturing base due to market distorting foreign competition or government policies that discourage domestic investment in productive capacity. Should this happen, millions of additional jobs would be lost and our economic strength as a nation would be further damaged. The U.S. military and our civilian national security agencies also would lose their principal source of strategic materials and our nation would become dangerously dependent upon foreign sources of supply.

To meet these critical goals, the North American steel industry strongly supports the implementation of a public policy agenda to allow U.S. manufacturers to compete in today’s global economy.