More than a year ago, presidential candidate George W. Bush promised to "safeguard American markets against unfair practices like dumping."

This month, President Bush responded to emergency pleas by steel companies and their employee-unions by initiating a study on whether low-cost foreign steel imports have hurt the U.S. steel industry. On June 5, Bush directed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick to ask the U.S. International Trade Commission to start an investigation under the 1974 Trade Act. If the commission finds serious harm, Bush could then bring a remedy, including restricting imports or imposing tariffs.

It's the start of an agonizingly slow process to reverse the trend of foreign companies "dumping" steel on the U.S. marketplace, which has already pushed several major U.S. steel companies into bankruptcy and cost the nation 23,000 jobs. Foreign manufacturers, many of them state-owned in Korea and China, continue to manufacture steel despite low worldwide demand, then "dump" their products in the U.S. at prices below the cost it takes to manufacture. The result: U.S. manufacturers simply can't compete.

As we reported last month, the decline in the U.S. steel industry has had a direct impact on Michigan, with the recent closing of the Tilden and Empire iron ore mines in the Upper Peninsula and the loss of construction work in the plants of steel manufacturers.

The crisis has spawned the formation of "Stand up for Steel" and "Stand up for Iron Ore," labor-management groups that are lobbying for the steel-dumping restrictions.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Bush's move, although not a bold one initially, signals a trade stance "that's every bit as protectionist as the Democrats'" and may be a means to woo trade unions. The journal said President Clinton refused to file a trade case against steel-dumping nations, and that probably cost Al Gore the major steel-producing state of West Virigina - and the presidency.

Capping a series of rallies in cities nationwide, Steel Workers descended on Washington in early June to demand government action against subsidized steel imports.

USWA President Leo Gerard, lawmakers from both parties and Steel Workers and family members all described the impact of the imports on themselves, jobs, families and communities. Their target was Congress, where they want quick action on anti-dumping measures. "We can't wait" beyond the end of the year, Gerard said, gesturing to mailbags stacked against the podium and filled with 500,000 letters for lawmakers.