last autumn recommended<\/a>\u00a0\u201canti-dumping duties,\u201d which are tariffs, on soda ash imports from Turkey, Russia, the US and Iran ranging from about $79 to $113 per metric ton.<\/p>\nWyoming\u2019s junior Republican U.S. Senator, Lummis, contacted the U.S. ambassador to India and explained how the tariffs would hurt Wyoming trona\u00a0producers especially WE Soda, the world\u2019s largest soda ash maker operating in southwestern Wyoming, according to\u00a0Craig Rood, WE Soda\u2019s\u00a0U.S.\u00a0director of government affairs.<\/p>\n
Open Letter<\/p>\n
It also would have helped China, according to an open letter to Lummis that WE Soda released Friday.<\/p>\n
Trona is the parent mineral of soda ash, which in turn yields products like baking soda and glass. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The ambassador assigned staffers in both countries to help, and the U.S.\u00a0State Department agreed to urge the\u00a0India\u00a0Ministry of Finance not to adopt the tariff, Rood said, adding that ambassador later learned India\u2019s government decided against the action.<\/p>\n
“On behalf of the over 900 men and women who work for WE Soda in southwestern Wyoming, I would like to thank you for your prompt and effective action in keeping a major market open to Wyoming soda ash,” CEO Oguz Erkan said in the letter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recent news that the Government of India decided not to proceed was met with relief and great appreciation for your efforts to maintain jobs, stability, and global competitiveness,\u201d reads the company\u2019s letter. \u201cIt is hard to overstate the importance of this win for Wyoming. We are grateful for your leadership and continued support of the trona industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lummis’ Involvement<\/p>\n
Lummis\u2019 office confirmed that she intervened and alerted the state department.<\/p>\n
\u201cSenator Lummis has long been a strong advocate and fighter for Wyoming\u2019s soda ash industry,\u201d says a Friday email from Lummis\u2019 Senior Communications Advisor Joe Jackson. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe was pleased to work directly with the Trump administration to elevate this issue and work to stop a policy that would have hurt Wyoming workers and benefited Chinese soda ash. She will continue fighting to protect Wyoming industries.\u201d<\/p>\n
“Tremendous Champion”<\/p>\n
The Wyoming Mining Association lists five trona companies in the Cowboy State, four with Green River addresses. <\/p>\n
One is a startup, while four of those are operating in the state \u2014 all in the Green River area \u2014 WMA spokesman Travis Deti confirmed Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cCynthia Lummis in her time in office has been a tremendous champion of the Wyoming trona industry and Wyoming mining industry in general,\u201d said Deti.<\/p>\n
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The largest\u00a0soda ash\u00a0producer in the world credited\u00a0U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis on Thursday with averting India\u2019s proposed tariff on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":{"0":"post-413210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}