At a Pennsylvania Steel Mill, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai Touts Progress in “Flipping the Script” on Trade

From left: United Steelworkers District 10 Director Bernie Hall, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai join Cleveland-Cliffs Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves for a fireside chat at the Cleveland-Cliffs steel mill in Coatesville, Pa. on Oct. 11. Photo by Scott Paul

Tai appeared alongside Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, touring the Cleveland-Cliffs facility and speaking about the importance of "thinking about industrial policy in a new way."

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said Friday that the Biden administration is making progress in its goal of building a worker-centered trade policy that grows the middle class and reverses decades of globalization that "led to that famous race to the bottom."

Tai joined Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) for a fireside chat hosted by Cleveland-Cliffs at its steel mill in Coatesville, Pa., where the group discussed how to implement and continue policies that strengthen domestic manufacturing and well-paid, union jobs. Cleveland-Cliffs Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves hosted, and United Steelworkers (USW) District 10 Director Bernie Hall also offered remarks, and the group also toured the factory.

The Coatesville facility is the oldest continuously operating steel mill in the country, and helped build everything from steam locomotives to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. These days, the USW-represented workers at the plant make high-tech steel products that are crucial to our nation's national and economic security, producing everything from armored steel plate for the military to steel used in wind turbines and other emerging clean energy infrastructure.

But like most American manufacturers, the mill remains threatened by the unfair trade practices of countries like China and Mexico, Goncalves said. Smart policies like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act have provided a big boost to the operations at the Coatesville mill and other Cliffs facilities around the country, but it is crucial that the U.S. not "make mistakes that we made in the past," he said.

The other speakers echoed that sentiment. The Biden administration is working to reverse decades of trade policy that favored offshoring to maximize corporate profits over the interest of workers and the middle class, Tai said, which "continually pitted Americans against Americans."

"This is the fight, this is what we've been up against," Tai said. "And so what we are trying to do with the worker-centered trade policy is trying to flip the script."

AAM President Scott Paul (left) poses for a selfie with Vonie Long, a USW member and longtime employee at the Cleveland-Cliffs Coatesville steel mill. Photo by Scott Paul

Tai pointed to the administration's success in enforcing a mechanism in the United States Mexico Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA) that allow workers in all three countries to hold corporations accountable when they move production offshore in search of unfairly cheap labor. That mechanism has been invoked more than 30 times, allowing more than 30,000 workers in Mexico "to hold a free and fair vote for a union that actually represents their interest," Tai said.

"We are just beginning to even the playing field between America's workers and Mexico's workers," Tai said. "This is what we're talking about, stopping the pitting of workers against each other."

It's not just better trade policy where progress has been evident, Tai noted, pointing to the increased cooperation between the Labor Department and USTR on many of these issues. Traditionally, the two departments have been rival factions in the government, but have worked far more cohesively under President Biden, Tai said, which she called a "commitment to excellence and unity of vision."

Su said she sees the progress that's being made when she visits communities like Coatesville.

"If you just watch the news its so much noise and so much acrimony, but what I see when I sit down with communities, it's just people wanting a fair shot," she said. "I'm really proud to be part of an administration just trying to expand that fair shot."

Houlahan, who represents Coatesville in Congress, noted that progress isn't just evident at the steel mill; the entire community is seeing the benefits. As part of their visit to the Pennsylvania city on Friday, the VIPs were also set to visit a startup incubator and a new grocery store, for example.

"My feeling is just looking at this community, if I just look at this community, I see the progress," she said.

There's a lot of work left to be done to reverse decades of damage from globalization, but Tai argued that "reversing the script" on trade is possible.

"If human beings can figure out how to send other people, human beings into space, to the moon, I promise you we can figure out how to do this," she said.

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