Letter to the Editor: What is Free and Fair Trade?

Steel Market Update received the following letter to the editor from one of our readers regarding the running conversation we have been having in our newsletter regarding free trade and if dumping suits are justified at this time.

“Thank you for the opportunity to comment on one of the Trader’s viewpoints, specifically the “China will set the world price on steel and it’s up to US mills to restructure their costs around it than to look to antidumping as a sustainable strategy.”  Really?  How would a company in a market economy go about “restructuring its costs” to compete with state owned enterprises that are given government loans each year to cover their losses (generated from selling below their costs) with no intention of ever paying them back?  Should the U.S. government take over the domestic steel companies so they can subsidize their losses with taxpayer dollars? Without a distinction between what is free and fair trade it’s hard to have an objective conversation on this.”