August 2023 Volume 5

WASHINGTON UPDATE

FIA Government Affairs Update By Megha Patel

It has been just over a year since the Forging Industry Association (FIA) started its first-ever in-house government affairs department. The time has just flown by! While the last year came with challenges accelerating our advocacy efforts; it has been nothing short of exciting and gratifying. In the past year, FIA has met with countless congressional offices, the White House, the U.S. Department of Commerce and Canada’s Prime Minister’s Office to name a few. Not to mention several plant visits from key policymakers and a historic level of funds raised for the ForgingPAC. All to say -- there is never a dull moment in the government affairs department at FIA. During FIA’s Lobby Day (February), FIA, The Franklin Partnership and a handful of member companies attended a meeting at the White House. This meeting helped spur an additional meeting with the Made in America office, which falls under the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. Members and FIA expressed forgers’ perspectives on the Buy American rules concerning offshore wind energy. Members highlighted the North American forging industry's open capacity and its ability to produce the majority of the components domestically needed by OEMS. FIA has re-engaged with Cassidy Levy Kent, a leading trade law firm based in Washington, D.C. Back in 2019, Cassidy Levy Kent successfully won the Fluid End Blocks anti-dumping case against China, Germany, India, and Italy brought forward by a group of FIA member companies. The goal of reengaging trade counsel is to explore opportunities to bring forward a broad AD/CVD case in front of the U.S. Department of Commerce. We are actively working on gathering data and evidence from FIA Members to prove injury. In fact, the association, The Franklin Partnership and select members met with the Commerce Department a couple of months ago to determine potential next steps and opportunities to pursue a case. FIA has an open dialogue with the Department of Commerce and will continue to work with them to promote the protection of the domestic forging industry. For the first time in our association’s history, we organized a Lobby Day up in Ottawa, Canada. FIA has conducted numerous Lobby Days in Washington, D.C., however, the opportunity has never presented itself in Ottawa, the capital of Canada. We have been expanding our advocacy efforts throughout North America aggressively, and this event helped accelerate the forging industry’s influence in Canada. Due to support from the FIA’s Canada Advisory Committee, FIA staff and member companies were able to meet with several Members of Parliament, officials from the Department of National Defense and the Prime Minister’s office. The meetings consisted of great discussions on challenges facing the industry, one integrated North American market, and domestic capacity and capability. Through our meetings with the government

and lawyers, we learned more about the country’s Harmonized System codes and the need to add more of the common forged component codes found in the U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS). Therefore, FIA has engaged with Cassidy Levy Kent Ottawa to increase the list of forging HS codes, which will allow the Canadian Customs Authorities to more accurately track and identify imported forgings to stop the illegal importation of dumped or subsidized forgings from abroad. The ForgingPAC fundraising event was a huge success at this year’s Annual Meeting down in Naples, Florida due to the generosity of our members. More than $12,000 was raised in one night, totaling approximately $24,000 in contributions since the PAC was relaunched. Never in FIA history has the ForgingPAC raised that much money at one event nor in a one-year timeframe. We are incredibly grateful for our members’ generosity and their tremendous support of our advocacy initiatives. We hope to keep growing the ForgingPAC as it is vital to educating and raising awareness in our nation’s capital. FIA has been able to achieve many goals in the first year since the government affairs department was launched. None of our advocacy efforts are possible without the backing and faith of our members and we could not be more grateful for it. Here’s to another year of promoting the North American forging industry and building upon our advocacy successes! Megha M. Patel

Government Affairs Manager Forging Industry Association Phone: 216-781-6260 Email: megha@forging.org

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FIA MAGAZINE | AUGUST 2023