Strong Buy American provisions critical under Biden: USW president

Establishing and enforcing strong Buy American provisions, particularly related to infrastructure, are going to be critical in allowing the US economy to recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, and could set President-elect Joe Biden apart from his predecessor, Tom Conway, president of the United Steelworkers union said Dec. 3.

"[Biden's] manufacturing plan is just covered with Buy American [provisions] and I think that's what differs from what we've just been through in four years," Conway said in a webinar hosted by the Alliance for American Manufacturing. "Rather than a sort of tariff plan that really didn't solve the problem and alienated a lot of important allies, a Buy American plan really is about making America first."

While the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum introduced by President Donald Trump's administration in March 2018 provided some benefit in the short term, the overall issue of global overcapacity persists, Conway said.

"I think part of the trade problem with what Trump did was its simplicity," he said. "He just was able to say to the whole world: here's a 25% tariff on steel and a 10% tariff on aluminum and be on my way. It's going to take a very thoughtful approach to sit down with our allies and say we've got to get at the overcapacity – particularly China, but other places while at the same time we're not just going to throw open our gates to you on procurement if you're not going to play fairly with us."

However, the Biden administration should take its time when examining the tariffs on steel and aluminum and should not remove those protections until there is a plan in place, Conway said.

"If you get rid of [the tariffs] and you don't have a plan in place, you're going right back to where you were. There was a genuine problem in the [steel and aluminum industries] and they were struggling," he said.

The tariffs should remain in place until an infrastructure plan is in place and the work is done rebuilding the country, ensuring that US jobs and industries are supported, Conway said.

"In some places we've lost those industries," he said. "We have remnants of them, like we found ourselves with PPE. We had almost nothing left and had to quickly find a way to rebuild, that's true for many things and that's why this is going to be a long haul."

When asked how easy it would be for Democrats to make progress on a robust infrastructure package with a Republican-controlled Senate, Conway said the benefits of an infrastructure bill should rise above politics.

"If you think of Indiana, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Alabama and Texas, nine out of ten of those senators are republicans, and in each of those states this is going to mean a lot of work," he said. "It's going to put people back to work and it's going to keep those mills running so I guess they can play around and try to impede an infrastructure bill, but then have to explain to their own states why they are not allowing those mills to run at full capacity... We have an opportunity to do a lot of good carbon reduction things inside of an infrastructure plan and accomplish a lot of stuff together and the republicans have to realize this really is a way to put the nation on good footing."