US to step up lawsuits vs. steel-export nations

The United States will file another round of lawsuits against foreign steel-exporting countries this week or next, Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige said.

Last week the Commerce Department announced it had filed suits against Belgium, Brazil, Romania, France, and South Africa for alleged subsidizing of steel exports to the United States at unfairly low prices -- what's known as "dumping."

He conceded that the filing of last week's suits, the first ever by the government, had raised the possibility of global trade wars.

Meanwhile, in Homestead, Pa., a dwindling force of steelworkers is saying that modernization would serve US interests better than protection from cheap foreign imports.