Clinton pledges greater anti-dumping enforcement

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she would raise duties and take other measures to stop foreign companies from dumping steel and other products in the United States at the expense of domestic manufacturers.    Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday said that if elected president she would take more aggressive action to stop dumping of foreign steel, especially by China, and protect the United States steel industry.
   She said the government should take the initiative to file anti-dumping orders raising duties on products dumped in the U.S. at below fair market value, rather than waiting for aggrieved parties to petition for relief.
   “I believe that the dumping is illegal, and that we have to summon up the political and the legal arguments to take it on…You shouldn’t have to be a business or a union or a worker to bring these kinds of unfair trade practices to a legal forum. I want the government to do it. I want the United States government to stand up for steel, to stand up for the companies and the workers,” Clinton said, reiterating a position she took while a senator from New York.
   She made her comments in response to an audience question during a nationally televised town hall moderated by CNN in Columbus, Ohio.
   Dumping is a form of price discrimination, where the price of a product sold in the importing country is less than the price of that product in the market of the exporting country. Under World Trade Organization rules, countries can impose anti-dumping duties to equalize the prices if an investigation determines that dumping is occurring, the domestic industry producing the same product has suffered any material injury and there is a cause and effect relationship.
   Clinton has previously proposed creating a new position – trade prosecutor – and hiring more investigators “so that we don’t wait until the damage is done, we try to get in early to prevent it, and then make it possible for there to be some kind of recovery.”
   The Democratic presidential candidate said that the steel industry is vital to America’s national security and that she is committed to keeping it strong, although she acknowledged a plan for doing so has yet to be formulated.
   The town hall took place a couple of days ahead of the primary election in Ohio, where steel production traditionally has been a large part of the economy.