Trump to Investigate China's Alleged Dumping of Steel Wheels in U.S.

President Trump’s Commerce Department announced this week that they will investigate whether or not China is dumping cheap steel wheels in the United States by unfairly taking advantage of subsidies.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced the investigation in a statement, saying:

When a trade case is initiated it begins an open and transparent process that allows American companies, workers, and communities to gain relief from the market-distorting effects of injurious dumping and subsidization of imports. The Department will act swiftly, while completing a full and fair assessment of the facts, to ensure that U.S. businesses and workers have a fair chance to compete. [Emphasis added]

U.S.-based companies Accuride Corporation of Evansville, Indiana and Maxion Wheels Akron LLC of Akron, Ohio initiated the trade case by appealing to the Commerce Department, accusing China of dumping steel wheels in the U.S. at extremely low prices.

The investigation by the Commerce Department will determine if steel wheel imports from China are being dumped in the U.S. at prices that American businesses are unable to compete with.

In 2017, alone, U.S. imports of certain steel wheels from China were valued at an estimated $388 million, according to the Commerce Department.

The Trump administration’s action against China is only the latest effort to defend American companies and products against unfair competition from free trade with the foreign superpower.

Most recently, Breitbart News reported how Trump announced $50 billion worth of tariffs and restrictions on imported Chinese goods.

The move includes 1,300 categories of products, including certain medical products, televisions, dishwashers, and automobile parts and chemicals. These would be subject to a 25 percent levy.

Since 2001, free trade with China has cost millions of Americans their jobs. For example, in a report by the Economic Policy Institute, between 2001 and 2015, about 3.4 million U.S. jobs were lost due to the country’s trade deficit with China.

Of the 3.4 million U.S. jobs lost in that time period, about 2.6 million were lost in the crippled manufacturing industry, making up about three-fourths of the loss of jobs from the U.S.-Chinese trade deficit.