Opinion: Mo. manufacturers earn level playing field

There’s one thing I know for sure: If our manufacturers can compete on a level playing field, they’ll often win.

That goes for companies making everyday consumer products, to those manufacturing the backbone of our state’s infrastructure: the support frames for our homes and businesses, the light poles that dot our highways, the handrails in our schools and the agricultural tools used by our farmers and ranchers.  

A lot of these vital products are made in Missouri manufactured by companies like Bull Moose Tube Co., which employs more than 160 Missourians at its St. Louis and Gerald locations, and ExlTube, home to more than 100 workers at its North Kansas City mill.

These folks are creating the infrastructure that makes our economy tick and our lives run more smoothly. … So when Missouri jobs suffer because of unfair trade practices, I can’t sit still.

These very companies had been put at an unfair disadvantage by their foreign competitors from Korea, Mexico and Turkey, who were illegally “dumping,” or setting their prices below the cost to produce, just to undercut U.S. prices.

I jumped at the opportunity to testify on behalf of these companies to the International Trade Commission, which investigates trade matters. And I’m glad to say we’ve won the fight.

The commission recently voted 4-2 in favor of these Missouri companies, leveling the appropriate taxes on these illegally subsidized foreign imports. The commission understood that Missouri manufacturers rely on the enforcement of our trade laws. …

Missouri manufacturers bolster our economy creating products that help improve our daily lives. And when their playing field is level, we all succeed.

—U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation