Democratic senators urge Commerce to make South Korea play fair in trade deal

By Ramsey Cox - 11/02/12 03:32 PM ET

Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) continued to urge the U.S. Department of Commerce on Thursday to reject what they said was falsified data from foreign competitors in South Korea in order to protect U.S. jobs.

Stabenow and Brown said they are trying to protect jobs in their home states. Whirlpool filed a case with the Commerce Department regarding the dumping of residential washers, made in South Korea and Mexico, into the U.S. market. The lawmakers said these unfairly dumped imports place companies that manufacture their product in America, such as Whirlpool, at an unfair disadvantage.

“Companies like Whirlpool can compete with anyone in the world when there is a level playing field,” Brown in a statement Thursday. “We’re at risk of losing our good-paying manufacturing jobs if we allow our companies to be undermined and undercut by illegal trade practices carried out by our trading partners.

“The Department of Commerce must reject attempts from Whirlpool’s foreign competitors to skew the ongoing trade case, and the agency must be aggressive in investigating the unfair trade practices of these companies. If we want to encourage companies like Whirlpool to continue moving jobs back to the U.S., then we also have to get tough on countries that don’t play by the rules.”

Earlier this year, Brown and Stabenow, along with Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), sent a letter to the Commerce Department asking it to enforce trade laws and level the playing field for U.S. companies now that there is a trade agreement between the United States and South Korea.

“We need to be exporting our products, not our jobs. When other countries engage in illegal trade practices, it harms American manufacturers and workers,” Stabenow said in a statement Thursday. “We need to hold other countries accountable that refuse to play by the rules and crack down on unfair trade practices that undermine our businesses and workers.”