The United Steelworkers union on Wednesday urged US President Donald Trump to take action on Chinese steel overcapacity during his meeting this week with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
Trump's "tough rhetoric" on China during last year's US presidential campaign needs to be turned into "measurable and sustained changes" in the country's trade relationship with China, the USW said in a statement. Xi is scheduled to meet with Trump at his Mar-a-Largo resort in Palm Beach, Florida, Thursday and Friday.
"China has increased its overcapacity year-after-year in direct conflict with market forces," the USW said. "Its excess capacity has been dumped and subsidized, and flooded into the global marketplace. Despite the US economic recovery, our steel sector has not shared sufficiently in the economy's growth and our members and American workers continue to suffer."
China has 1.2 billion mt of steelmaking capacity, the union said, exceeding the combined capacity of the US, the EU, Japan and Russia. According to the American Iron and Steel Institute, global steel production overcapacity was more than 700 million mt in 2014, with China contributing 425 million excess mt.
"America cannot afford more of China's broken promises," the USW said. "This week, workers are looking to Presidents Trump and Xi to produce results that will reverse the continuing buildup of steelmaking capacity in China."
