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 News from Around the Americas | October 2007 
U.S. Cash, Chinese Steel
 John Guerriero - Erie Times-News
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| | U.S. Rep. Phil English, of Erie, R-3rd District, is upset that 800 miles of border fencing in Arizona is being built with Chinese steel. |
Another Great Wall of China is being built - this time along the U.S.-Mexico border.
That's what U.S. Rep. Phil English calls part of a border security fence that was built with steel pipes made in China.
English, of Erie, R-3rd Dist., and other House lawmakers from both major parties railed against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for using Chinese steel posts to build part of the fence along the border in San Luis, Ariz.
English said he is outraged that a public works project "of this size and scale" is using Chinese materials when steel pipe and tube plants in his district and the rest of the country are trying to compete.
"It was certainly our intention to build the Mexican border fence with American products, not to build a new Great Wall of China," English said Friday.
English said the government must buy U.S. products, under the Buy American Act, for federal projects.
Brad Benson, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, confirmed that about 60 of 700 steel posts along the Arizona border were made in China for a portion of the fence completed earlier this year. The agency falls under the umbrella of the Homeland Security Department.
Benson said the Buy America Act was not violated since so little of the Chinese-imported pipe was used, but he acknowledged that a contractor's use of the pipe from a supplier raised "an unnecessary, unfavorable visual appearance" - referring to the "made in China" stamp.
The agency is reviewing other border fence construction from this summer to make sure the law was followed, he said.
English, vice chairman of the Congressional Steel Caucus, said Congress would work to close any loophole that allowed Chinese-made products in the fence being built to keep out illegal immigrants.
English has long criticized China for artificially undervaluing its currency and thus undercutting the price of its exports to the United States. But this time, harsh language was aimed at Washington.
"This, to me, is a collection of bureaucrats working overtime to hang American workers out to dry to come up with something this stupid. It's using American tax dollars to undercut their own standard of living," he said.
Gary Hubbard, spokesman for the United Steelworkers, said the border fence issue was part of a larger problem of the Chinese dumping steel into the United States. Chinese pipe, he said, now makes up about 50 percent of the American pipe market.
"It's about time America wakes up to the growing crisis of unfair and predatory practices of China imports that are stealing American workers' jobs," he said. About 1,100 people are employed in the steel pipe industry in western Pennsylvania, he said.
Congress has authorized $1.2 billion to install 700 miles of fencing along the border, the Associated Press reported.
Asked if the Chinese pipes weren't an example of the global economy, English said, "If we can't use our tax dollars to support our industrial base, then we need to go back to ground zero on the global economy."
The 100-plus member Congressional Steel Caucus has invited Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff or senior staff to testify Oct. 31 on the caucus' concerns about the pipe quality and its use in government projects.
Amy Kudwa, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, said she didn't know if Chertoff will appear before the caucus.
john.guerriero@timesnews.com |
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