March 10, 2005

Pittsburgh, PA - March 10, 2005 - U.S. Representative Mike Doyle (PA-14) declared an important victory for the American steel industry today with the expansion of the Steel Import Monitoring Analysis program.

The Commerce Department announced on March 9th that it would extend the Steel Import Monitoring Analysis system until March 2009 and expand it to include 30 additional steel products. The SIMA provides the steel industry with advanced notice of the types, levels, and prices of imports.

“This is an important victory for the U.S. steel industry,” says Congressman Doyle, after the Commerce Department decided to extend SIMA. “I supported the Administration’s anti-dumping action but I felt that it should have been carried out for a number of years to come, which is why I worked with both Democrats and Republicans to see that SIMA will continue to help the United States steel industry.

“Just this past year, U.S. steelmakers reported one of their most successful profitable years in recent memory, and SIMA was one of the reasons for their success. I believe that by extending SIMA the U.S. steel industry will grow and prosper.

“I am proud to say that my colleagues and I were successful in convincing the administration to continue the SIMA until 2009. The United States will now be able to respond quickly when foreign steel industries try to dump their products into our nation.”

Congressman Doyle and a bipartisan group of members of the Congressional Steel Caucus have been working to compel the Bush Administration to extend the Steel Import Monitoring program. With that end in mind, they recently introduced the Steel Import Monitoring Act, legislation that would make the SIMA program permanent.

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