pittsburgh<u+2014> donald trump has made revitalizing manufacturing<u+2014>specifically the u.s. steel industry<u+2014>a core part of his pitch to voters in rust belt swing states like pennsylvania and ohio. <u+201c>we are going to put american-produced steel back into the backbone of our country,<u+201d> he said at one speech at a scrap-metal plant near pittsburgh. <u+201c>this alone will create massive numbers of jobs.<u+201d> unions and contractors, though, say that trump-branded structures for years have used large quantities of imported steel and that mr. trump appears to have no record of preferring u.s.-made steel for projects that bear his name. <u+201c>he doesn<u+2019>t direct his people to buy american steel, but it<u+2019>s not just steel,<u+201d> said leo gerard, president of the united steelworkers union, which opposes mr. trump<u+2019>s candidacy. <u+201c>furnishings are made in places like china and bangladesh.<u+201d> mr. trump<u+2019>s call for using u.s.-made steel is a central plank of his <u+201c>america first<u+201d> pitch to rebuild domestic manufacturing by cracking down on what he describes as unfair trading deals and cheap imports. his democratic rival, hillary clinton, has also criticized trade deals and called for protecting u.s. manufacturing. the trump campaign says trump-branded buildings include foreign steel, including from china, and defended that fact as basic economics. <u+201c>trump did not order chinese dumped steel, the general contractors and engineering companies did<u+201d> because it was cheaper, said dan dimicco, a trump adviser who spoke on behalf of the campaign. mr. dimicco is a former chief executive of steelmaker nucor corp. todd leany, who helped build a prime trump property in las vegas, can attest to the attractiveness of foreign steel. in 2006, the president of next century rebar in las vegas was filling out orders for building trump international hotel in that city and bought half the 15,000 tons he needed from turkey and germany. like most builders, the tower<u+2019>s contractors didn<u+2019>t care where the materials came from, he said. nor were there guidelines to buy american. <u+201c>you always look to perform the best, so it ends up being a mix of foreign and domestic,<u+201d> mr. leany said. pre-1970s projects, such as the empire state building and the golden gate bridge, were built almost exclusively with domestic steel. nowadays, most projects involve some imports<u+2014>although there are exceptions, like federal buildings. private developers typically don<u+2019>t mandate where steel is to be bought; they chase low prices. the trump international hotel and tower in chicago, for example, used american-made steel, because it was the most affordable, says brett szabo, a contractor on the project. steel experts say imported steel has become part of the way american builders do business as cheaper imports took away market share from u.s. producers. demand is around 130 million tons, while domestic supply is under 100 million tons, although capacity is higher. <u+201c>i<u+2019>m not surprised that trump uses imported steel,<u+201d> says john packard, publisher of steel market update. <u+201c>buyers are going to go where the cheapest product is.<u+201d> mr. trump has repeatedly emphasized, in campaign events and during debates, the need to bring back the american steel industry, portraying it as symbolic of a wider national revival. in the second presidential debate, he accused china of <u+201c>dumping vast amounts of steel all over the u.s., which essentially is killing our steelworkers and steel companies.<u+201d> mrs. clinton, who has also called for protecting u.s. manufacturing jobs, responded by saying: <u+201c>china is illegally dumping steel in the u.s., and donald trump is buying it to build his buildings, putting steelworkers and american steel plants out of business.<u+201d> dumping refers to selling steel below cost plus profit margin to gain market share, of which chinese steelmakers have repeatedly been found guilty, triggering a raft of u.s. import tariffs. mr. dimicco said that as more tariffs are imposed, <u+201c>our materials will no longer be cost disadvantaged in buildings and bridges, and will be made with american steel and fabricated in american plants by american workers.<u+201d> still, an array of contractors for trump projects as well as steel, trade and union officials couldn<u+2019>t recall explicit promptings from the company to use american steel. that is a big reason the united steelworkers, which represents 850,000 workers in steel, aluminum, paper, glass, rubber and other industries, has revved up efforts to defeat mr. trump, said mr. gerard. last month, it launched a campaign to turn union workers away from the republican nominee. usw leaders had initially been willing to listen to mr. trump, because of his tough talk on trade, but their opposition hardened in part because of his businesses<u+2019> reliance on foreign-made goods. the union said it sent officers into trump hotels to examine interior d<u+00e9>cor and found it was all imported. it has started distributing anti-trump leaflets throughout factories across the country. roy stillman, a new york developer who has worked with mr. trump on buildings, said, <u+201c>when you<u+2019>re buying a commodity, a penny cheaper here than there, you<u+2019>re going to do that.<u+201d> he recalls purchases of <u+201c>windows that were made in panama,<u+201d> textiles from india and furniture from china. and, he added, <u+201c>if we didn<u+2019>t have foreign workers, there<u+2019>d be nobody to build the buildings.<u+201d>
donald trump<u+2019>s use of foreign steel undercuts a major campaign theme - wsj
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