In an open letter to Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau on behalf of the Canadian steel industry and its employees, the United Steelworkers (USW) labor union and the Canadian Steel Producers Association (CSPA) have urged the prime minister to continue pressing China at the upcoming G20 meetings in Hangzhou, for multinational solutions to the problem of global overcapacity in the steel sector.
In the letter, the USW and the CSPA stated that, despite recent efforts, the problems of overcapacity in steel and associated sectors persist in the volume of damaging and unfairly traded goods entering the Canadian market. The USW and the CSPA added that the massive state ownership of and support for China’s steel sector is the single largest force disrupting established trade patterns and degrading pricing of steel products globally. According to the letter, unfairly traded goods pose a clear threat to the livelihoods of the over 22,000 middle-class Canadians employed directly in steel production and the additional 100,000 Canadians whose employment is indirectly supported by steel sector.