WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The final public hearing in the pending trade case against dumped and subsidized China pipe imports known as oil country tubular goods (OCTG), begins Dec. 1 at 9:30 a.m. before the six-member U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC).

The stakes are the future of 6,000 workers employed by seven OCTG pipe producers, where nearly half of the domestic workforce has been laid off at different times since the case was jointly filed in April by the USW and the participating companies. The pipe imports case is the largest in U.S. history with imports valued at $2.6 billion in 2008.

Testimony at the ITC hearing will be presented by nine members of Congress, three U.S. Senators and two governors with OCTG producers represented in their states and districts.

Leo W. Gerard, USW international president and the executives of the petitioner companies will also be testifying. Some of the USW represented pipe workers from Pennsylvania and Ohio are going to be at the hearing.

In addition to the USW as co-petitioner, the seven producers of the OCTG petition are: U.S. Steel Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa.; Maverick Tube Corp., Hickman, Ark.; Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel, Pueblo, Colo.; TMK IPSCO, Downers Grove, Ill.; V&M Star, LLP, Houston, Tx.; V&M TCA, Houston, Tx.; and Wheatland Tube Corp., Beachwood, Oh.

OCTG represents welded and seamless steel pipes that are used to extract oil or gas from a drill well.

Roger Schagrin, trade counsel for the USW at Schagrin Associates of Washington, DC, said the U.S. Commerce Dept. has issued determinations for a final countervailing duty and a preliminary anti-dumping duty in its investigation that allows the U.S. to begin collecting a bond that will go into an escrow fund for all future OCTG imports. After the ITC public hearing on Dec. 1, the first ITC injury determination will be made in early January, while the dumping portion of the trade case will be finalized in Spring 2010.

USW testimony and additional information for the OCTG pipe case will be posted after delivery at: www.usw.org/.