PORT URGES ITC TO CONSIDER IMPACT OF STEEL SANCTIONS

PORT URGES ITC TO CONSIDER IMPACT OF STEEL SANCTIONS       The Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans has joined the 28-member Free Trade in Steel Coalition, an ad hoc group, in petitioning the U.S. International Trade Commission to recognize the possible negative impact to the U.S. port industry, when taking action that would restrict or inhibit the shipment of imported steel.
   On Oct. 22, 2001, the ITC ruled that 12 of 33 domestic steel product lines have suffered serious injury because of lower priced imports. The commission is now considering remedial action to offset the injury.
   “It is not a question of whether or not the domestic steel industry has been injured by imported steel,” said Gary LaGrange, executive director of the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans. “We are in a position to state, without hesitation, that restrictive import restraints proposed by the ITC would result in major job and revenue losses at major U.S. ports and related maritime industries.”
   Steel is one of the major commodities passing through the New Orleans port and other ports, the Board of Commissioners for the Port of New Orleans said. Fifty percent of the revenue of the Port of New Orleans comes from handling steel imports. Without this revenue, the capital for port improvements and maintenance of wharves and docks will dry up. More importantly, the board said, port-related jobs are at stake.
   The Port of New Orleans supports the following recommendations of the Free Trade in Steel Coalition: -U.S. port industries have been operating on 40 years of inbound steel movements at an extraordinary economic benefit to the U.S. economy; -The ITC has several remedial actions at its disposal to address whatever injury they believe domestic producers have incurred that may be less devastating to our sector; -The ITC should recommend other means of reparation, such as low interest loans and trade adjustment assistance for companies and workers
   At the conclusion of the remedy hearing, the ITC will send its recommendation to the U.S. Trade Representative and the President. “As many as 38,000 port-related jobs are at risk,” LaGrange said. “It is our duty to ensure that their voices are heard.”