Good afternoon. I want to thank the committee for inviting the United Steelworkers to appear before you to discuss this very important critical industry.
I'm Ken Neumann, the national director for the United Steelworkers in Canada. With me is Shaker Jamal from our national research team. He will be with me to answer any questions, if there are any.
I have been a worker in the steel industry and a member of the union all my working life. I am committed to seeing it survive as a viable competitive Canadian industry. It is critical because it supports tens of thousands of middle-class families, as well as retirees, along with the communities that have benefited and grown during more than a century of steelmaking in Canada.
It is viable because our members in the industry produce high-quality, environmentally responsible products for domestic and foreign markets, but the steel industry is in trouble. From whichever angle you look at it, the problem comes down to the production overcapacity, primarily from one huge non-market economy, China. Such economies competing in the market-driven economies of North America are literally two worlds colliding.
The impacts are many. The first is that as the price decreases these lower prices have hurt the bottom line of many companies and forced them to access increasing amounts of short-term debt, which means many are operating at unsustainable levels. Look no further than U.S. Steel and Essar Steel Algoma, where the jobs of 3,200 workers are threatened, along with the retirement security of more than 20,000 retirees.
As if depressed prices weren't enough, increasing levels of dumped steel into North America are compounding the crisis. Chinese steel producers have used an artificially depressed currency, as well as other Chinese government export incentives, to dump steel into North America.
Our submission provides a detailed argument for the recommendations that I will outline to you in this brief presentation. Let me make it very clear from the outset that the United Steelworkers supports the role that trade plays in building and sustaining a healthy, robust economy. At the same time, we've always insisted that trade policy in Canada be developed in consultation with unions and other civil society groups, and that it serve the interests of both Canadian producers and workers.
To that end, and it has been made abundantly clear by the efforts of steel dumping from non-market economies, our union believes that Canada's trade law regime must be amended to provide unions with basic procedural rights.
First is the explicit right to file anti-dumping and countervailing duty complaints under section 31 of the Special Import Measures Act. Second is the explicit right to file safeguard complaints under section 23 of the act for the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, known as the CITT. Third is full procedural rights as interested parties under the rules and regulations of the CITT. That would include the right to receive notice, the right to counsel, and the right to participate fully in any oral or written CITT proceedings related to a complaint.
By providing unions with the right to file and participate in trade remedy complaints, Canadian producers will benefit in any trade case that they may file. This reform is essential to the ability to compete fairly against international producers within the Canadian market.
Let me conclude with the obvious fact that with 50% of the Canadian industry's total output exported to foreign markets, it is clear that the health of our high-tech, environmentally responsible steel industry is undeniably tied to the ability to be able to compete internationally. However, our submission makes it equally clear how and why this ability is overwhelmingly impacted by China's behaviour as a non-market economy and its unfair dumping of steel in Canada, as well as the United States.
By revising Canada's trade laws, the federal government will ensure that the Canadian steel industry is able to compete in the global economy.
That ends my remarks, and I thank the committee for the opportunity. I look forward to any questions that you may have.