Congressman Mike Kelly is continuing his push to reform trade agreements between the United States and China.
At a hearing for the U.S. House and Ways Committee earlier this week, the Republican from Butler said there are currently trade agreements that he believes are harming the American worker.
He specifically talked about grain oriented electrical steel, which is produced at Cleveland Cliffs in Butler and is currently imported into the U.S. via a loophole in a trade policy.
“This issue is really critical, not just to the 1,400 people to the town that I live and make this steel, but to our national security,” Kelly said.
“Now we are talking about infrastructure and what we need to do to protect our grid. We are doing the same thing with grain oriented electrical steel that we did with personal protective equipment and all these things that keep us safe. We allowed them to go overseas because it was a little bit cheaper.”
Kelly and other federal officials have been advocating for a change in the trade policies surrounding grain oriented electrical steel since 2017.