Trump playing havoc in the world order is obscuring what has always been important in world trade – protecting national interests against the dangers of injurious trade practices.
GMC CEO, Jenn Conley, shared the following view this week in the local media, responding to national commentary that suggested Australia shouldn’t care too much if cheap product is dumped here in the wake of the tsunami of trade disruptions.
I was sorry to hear the ABC chief economist, Peter Martin, say this week: ‘Who cares if China dumps cheap fabricated steel in Australia because we get cheaper products.’
It led me to thinking that too many economists think like Peter.
The pressure will be intense on countries now unable or unwilling to land product in the United States, following the Trump Administration’s imposition of heavy tariffs. Shiploads currently at sea and product ready for export are increasingly likely to be dumped on our shores at heavy discounts.
Yes, free open countries do well. But “dumping” by definition is exporting or disposing of product at below the cost of producing it. The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “the practice of selling products very cheaply in another country, in order to stop companies in that country from being able to compete.”
Shouldn’t we have restrictions on this?
We have biosecurity measures because we want to protect our cattle and our cattle industry from destruction by disease.
Dumping has the same impact as a disease. It kills the impacted sector.
For this reason, Australian Governments of all persuasions have worked to protect Australia from unfair trade practices, including imposing anti-dumping measures.
In Victoria, we have 2500 small and medium sized enterprises producing fabricated steel products for infrastructure, mining and construction.
In Geelong alone, an estimated 175 companies produce fabricated steel products. Most of these businesses employ up to 20 people each, and the largest companies employ over 200 people.
Expectations should be very clear on the Anti-Dumping Commission: these are practices that injure and destroy industries.
Fabricated steel imports to Australia, largely from China, have doubled in less than three years to over one million tonnes per annum.
These are products from a country with the world’s cheapest, subsidised fossil energy, with documented unsafe work practices. Arguments can and have been made about the poor quality of some of these products, but in the final analysis, dumping severely undercuts anything Australians can produce.
The future of Australian manufacturing of fabricated steel is at risk, and thousands of well-paid secure jobs hang in the balance.
Commentary first published in the Geelong Advertiser, 5 April 2025.