WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator JD Vance (R-OH) issued the following statement regarding today’s announcement that Cleveland-Cliffs will indefinitely idle its Weirton, WV plant. The plant, which produces tinplate steel, employs hundreds of Ohioans. Last week, the International Trade Commission (ITC) reversed the Department of Commerce’s final duties on tin mill products imported from countries engaged in illegal dumping.
“Today’s news angers me because it was entirely avoidable. Our trade laws exist to ensure a level playing field for our industries and to protect our workers from unfair competition,” said Senator Vance. “The ITC’s ruling last week undermined those ends, and now Ohioans are suffering the consequences. I was raised by a union steelworker – it pains me to think of the families who may lose their livelihoods because our government refuses to act. This fight is not over. I will continue to scrutinize the ITC’s decision and never stop fighting for Ohio’s steelworkers and our nation’s steel industry.”
In February of 2023, Senator Vance, Senator Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV) and a bipartisan coalition of colleagues sent a letter to David Johanson, Chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission and Lisa Wang, Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance at the U.S. Department of Commerce. In that letter, the senators expressed support for antidumping and countervailing duty petitions filed by Cleveland-Cliffs and the United Steelworkers which related to the dumping of tin mill imports. The letter warned that the “future of the [Cleveland-Cliffs Wierton] facility rests on the outcome of this trade case.”
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