Southdown President and Chief Executive Officer Clarence C. Comer announced that the company would "withdraw its support from the committees which are presently pursuing the continuation of antidumping duties or suspension agreements against Mexico, Japan, and Venezuela." In a statement released in mid-October, Comer said that Southdown's decision "recognizes the current robust financial health of the U.S. cement industry and the fact that imported cement over the past several years has played a largely supplemental role in the market." He added that should the economic climate change, the company "would not hesitate to reinitiate proceedings seeking relief for unfair trade practices."

Not surprisingly, the 25-member Southern Tier Cement Committee responded with surprise and disappointment. "Southdown's announcement is at odds with its consistent support of antidumping remedies over the last 10 years," said Mel Brekhus, executive vice president of Texas Industries Inc. and co-chairman of the Southern Tier committee. "With over 12 million tons of new domestic capacity announced in the Southern Tier Region extending from California to Florida, there could be no worse time for ending remedies against unfairly traded cement imports. The members of the Southern Tier Cement Committee shall vigorously pursue the continuation of antidumping remedies ."

Until recently, Southdown had been a member of one of the three separate coalitions of domestic producers and labor unions arguing in pending "sunset reviews" that revocation of antidumping remedies would lead to the continuation or recurrence of dumping by cement exports and of material injury to domestic producers. Jeffry Brozyna, general counsel of Lehigh Portland Cement and another co-chairman of the Southern Tier committee said, "Southdown's withdrawal will have no impact on the Southern Tier Committee's resolve and determination to prevail in the pending sunset reviews of the antidumping remedies. All of the injurious effects of dumped imports that Southdown has repeatedly identified in the past continue to persist. Revocation of the antidumping remedies would return the industry to the injurious conditions that led to the industry's decline during the 1980s."

However, at the recent Deutsche Bank-sponsored Latin American Cement Forum in New York City, Dennis Thies, Southdown's executive vice president-finance and chief financial officer, defended the company's actions. "Trade remedies ought to be used when they are needed and not used when they are not needed," he said. "Current imports are not having a negative impact on the market."

"Unfortunately, this reasoning ignores the major role of the dumping duties themselves over recent years in sustaining the improved performance of the industry and its ability to restrain imports to only a supplemental role," said Drew Wechsler, an industry trade expert with Vaigant Consulting Inc. "Even with the duties in place, Mexican producers have continued to dump aggressively into the U.S. market. [Removing these duties] puts at serious risk substantial industry investments that have been undertaken on the premise of vigorous enforcement of the trade laws."