TESTIMONY OF
Brian Robinson
Wilson Tool International Inc
Hearing Before The
House Committee On Small Businesses
"Lost Jobs; More Imports — The Unintended Consequences
of Steel Tariffs"
September 25, 2002
Good morning. Thank you for inviting me to testify
today about the Steel 201 tariffs. My name is Brian Robinson and
I am President of Manufacturing, Wilson Tool International. Wilson
Tool International, Inc. of White Bear Lake, Minnesota is a 36-year
old privately owned corporation that is the world's largest independent
manufacturer of turret punch press and press brake tooling. Wilson
currently has 470 employees. In October 2001 we employed 770 people.
The total reduction of over 285 employees has taken place since
that time due to the economic downturn and its devastating impact
on the manufacturer sector.
I am here to tell you that the Administration's
Steel Section 201 exclusion process did not work, it was unfair
and it has dire consequences for further job losses in the manufacturing
sector. Wilson Tool applied, as early as October 2001, for an
exclusion on AISI 4150 cold rolled steel products engineered into
special shapes (profiles). Wilson applied for this exclusion because
we were unable to purchase these profiles from domestic sources.
Not only did the Administration after six (6) letters from Wilson
Tool, three (3) from two Congressmen, plus the submission of the
Exclusion Questionnaire, not grant Wilson Tool's exclusion, the
Administration never even posted our exclusion-that is the Administration
never considered our exclusion request and did not provide the
domestic industry any opportunity to comment on it. What is worse,
the Administration never even told us that they were not going
to act on our exclusion request. Indeed, when the Administration
assigned an official "N" number to our exclusion request,
by the way that was the only acknowledgement and contact we had
from the Administration during this long, extensive effort, we
reasonably assumed that our exclusion request was accepted and
would be considered.
Accordingly, profile shapes in 4150 steel grade
remain subject to the steel section 201 action and Wilson Tool
is currently subject to 30% percent tariffs on these imported
profiles from Austria. It does not make any sense to impose a
tariff on a product that is not made in the United States-it does
not help any domestic company — it simply increases Wilson
Tool's costs unnecessarily and makes it more difficult for us
to compete in the market place.
Wilson Tool is currently the largest single independent
purchaser of cold worked tool steel stock in the United States.
Wilson Tool has always had a commitment to buy steel products
from domestic sources whenever possible. While Wilson currently
purchases 80-85% of its steel from domestic sources, Wilson has
had to import these profiles because Wilson has been unable to
purchase this material from domestic sources.
When Wilson Tool first developed a need for these
profiles a couple of years ago, Wilson Tool actively solicited
bids from all U.S. steel manufacturers capable of producing the
U.S. grade 4150 profiles. Wilson required 29 separate profiles
with varying sizes and quantity limitations ranging from 1 U.S.
ton to a maximum of 21 U.S. tons per profile per year. Only one
domestic company submitted a bid and it did not meet the requirements
in quantities or scope.
Accordingly, Wilson had to resort to foreign producers
and accepted the bid of Boehler-Uddeholm AG Ybbstal Profile of
Austria. Wilson Tool has worked with Boehler over the course of
the last two years, and spent tens of thousands of dollars to
develop the profiles to our specifications. This development process
was so lengthy in part because all of the products need to be
certified and go through extensive quality control testing. Thus,
even if domestic producers could produce some of the profiles
we needed, it would not be feasible to purchase from them as we
would have to go through the certification process multiple times.
Wilson Tool has always made a commitment to purchase
steel from domestic sources, but when Wilson cannot purchase the
steel we need from domestic source, we do not understand why we
should have to pay Section 201 tariffs on that steel. It makes
no sense. We are also very frustrated that our exclusion request
was in effect denied without any opportunity for us to make our
case. The exclusion process needs to be more transparent and accessible
to small businesses such as Wilson Tool.
In closing, I have come to Washington to testify
because there is something inherently flawed with the process
imposed by the Administration for obtaining an exclusion to the
Section 201 Steel Tariff when our exclusion request is totally
ignored and we are not even told why, and even our elected Congressional
representatives and their staff members are denied any acknowledgement
to their inquiries, much less provided information regarding their
constituent's issue; when small businesses must engage lobbyists
to represent them or be compelled to travel to Washington in order
to advocate their right to be heard; when a tariff is imposed
on domestic manufacturers for importation of a raw steel product
only to have their foreign competition import the same steel product
produced at the same foreign mill as a finished product without
a tariff, then we have a serious problem.
Thank you for providing me with an opportunity to
testify today.
