{"id":53893,"date":"2014-07-24T06:52:26","date_gmt":"2014-07-24T11:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=53893"},"modified":"2014-07-24T06:52:26","modified_gmt":"2014-07-24T11:52:26","slug":"senator-brown-seeks-to-protect-lafarge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2014\/07\/24\/senator-brown-seeks-to-protect-lafarge\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator Brown seeks to protect Lafarge"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown information<\/i><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is urging the Obama Administration to protect Paulding County\u2019s cement industry and the thousands of local jobs it supports. In a letter to United States Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman, Brown called for the Administration to crack down on Canada\u2019s attempt to illegally subsidize a cement plant in Quebec, which would specifically target the U.S. market, hurting the ability of local manufacturers to compete. U.S. cement companies would be affected, including Lafarge North America, which has a plant in Paulding.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaulding County workers can compete with anyone when given a level playing field,\u201d Brown<\/b> said. \u201cBut if countries like Canada illegally subsidize their industries, and target the U.S. market, it gives their products an unfair advantage. I urge the administration to investigate the nearly $500 million subsidy package proposed for the Quebec plant, which will directly compete with Lafarge North America\u2019s facility in Paulding. Actions must be taken in order to protect Paulding jobs and the economy of Northwest Ohio.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lafarge<\/a>Specifically, the Canadian federal government and Quebec are seeking to offer a nearly half billion dollar financial package to McInnis Cement to help its startup in Port-Daniel-Gascons, Quebec. The size and nature of these subsidies could violate Canada\u2019s World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations and give its cement industry an unfair advantage in the U.S. market. That is why Brown is calling for the USTR to investigate these subsidies and put a stop to them in order to protect Paulding\u2019s workers and businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cLafarge North America appreciates the inquiry to the United States Trade Representative to address a serious threat to U.S. cement producers and their workers,\u201d said John Stull, president and chief executive officer of Lafarge North America. \u201cGiven the excess cement capacity in the Province of Quebec, the McInnis Cement plant makes no economic sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cLafarge believes that the plant would not be built without enormous support from the federal and provincial government. Lafarge joins Senator Brown in urging the U.S. government to engage with the Canadian government regarding the provision of subsidies that appear to be prohibited by WTO rules and threaten material harm to the U.S. cement industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown continues to fight for Ohio manufacturers\u2019 ability to compete on a level playing field. Described as \u201cCongress\u2019 leading proponent of American Manufacturing,\u201d Brown is a member of the Senate Manufacturing Caucus, currently Vice-Chair of the Senate Auto Caucus, and was recently named incoming Chair of the Senate Steel Caucus. In April,\u00a0bipartisan manufacturing jobs legislation introduced by Brown\u00a0<\/a>and U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) moved one step closer to becoming law. Brown-Blunt would establish a National Network of Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) and create thousands of high-paying, high-tech manufacturing jobs while enhancing the United States\u2019 role as the world\u2019s leader in advanced manufacturing.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown information WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is urging the Obama Administration to protect Paulding County\u2019s cement industry and the thousands of local jobs it supports. In a letter to United States Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman, Brown called for the Administration to crack down on Canada\u2019s attempt to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 06:43:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}