The beautiful post-hurricane weather yesterday matched the spirits of steel industry officials, union members and lawmakers who gathered at Hartwood Acres for a rally for tariffs on imported steel that featured speeches, Doo-Wop music and a special appearance by singer Don McLean of "American Pie" fame.

Don McLean performs at Hartwood Acres during a rally yesterday for United States steel supporters who want President Bush to continue the tariffs on steel imports. The event drew a crowd of steelworkers and industry supporters from Ohio, West Virginia and the Pittsburgh area. (Doreena Balestreire, Post-Gazette) Click photo for larger image.

Virtually every elected official in Western Pennsylvania -- along with Gov. Ed Rendell -- took to the stage to crow about the results of a federal report released Friday that said the tariffs, put in place 18 months ago by President Bush, have been successful at giving American steel producers time to restructure to be competitive.

Before an audience of about 1,500 people -- from retirees to younger families, many of them spread out on picnic blankets -- Republican and Democratic lawmakers repeatedly urged Bush to heed the report's findings and continue the tariffs for the next 18 months.

"Tourism and high-tech industries are all good, but without a manufacturing base America has no backbone," Rendell told the crowd, before re-enacting the signing of a resolution by state House and Senate leaders urging the president to keep the tariffs.

The rally, sponsored by the United Steelworkers of America, was one of several being held by the union across the country -- in Detroit, Los Angeles, Gary, Ind., and other steel centers.

The tariffs are part of a three-year plan by the Bush administration to rescue the nation's struggling steel businesses, but many of the president's economic advisers are urging him to drop them, arguing that the tariffs have boosted steel prices and led to job losses in steel-consuming industries.

European countries, led by the World Trade Organization (WTO), have also threatened to retaliate by slapping tariffs on U.S. goods, claiming the tariffs violate trading rules.

Union officials argue that higher steel prices were caused by other factors besides the tariffs, including a "manipulative" currency policy by China and the 2001 shutdown of LTV Steel Corp. Any rollback of the tariffs would have dire economic consequences, they say.

"It would mean the end of the road for us," said Dennis Walter, president of Local 6521 in Altoona.

"Tariffs are fair and just, and the WTO has to understand that. Every other country subsidizes its manufacturing, and if we're not allowed to, well that's just dead wrong."

Backstage, the governor said he was hopeful that Bush would keep the tariffs in place despite pressure from the president's economic advisers to pull the plug on them. Given the importance of the steel-producing states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia in the 2004 election, "there's no question that presidential politics are going to be affected by this," said Rendell.

"The [U.S. International Trade Commission's] findings are very positive from our point of view," added John P. Surma, president and chief operating officer of U.S. Steel, who noted that the company invested $1 billion in May to acquire bankrupt National Steel's assets as part of an effort to consolidate into a larger, more efficient operation.

"We've done exactly what the president asked us to do," he said.

Most of the invective -- and applause -- came during a fiery speech by Leo Gerard, international president of the steelworkers union, who scathingly referred to "the big lie of the so-called consumer industries" who claimed the tariffs had produced 200,000 job losses.

In fact, he said, the ITC report found that there were more closures and layoffs in the year before the tariffs went into effect, and he noted that the ITC had praised the steelworkers unions for negotiating "groundbreaking" collective bargaining agreements.

"It would be a shame to win the war against political terrorists only to lose the war against economic terrorists who are draining $50 million an hour from American pockets," said Wilbur Ross, president of the International Steel Group.

While McLean didn't sing about steel tariffs when he took the stage, at about 2:45 p.m. -- his first number was an old Buddy Holly classic, "Surely Come My Way" -- he added his own little boost for the steelworkers anyway.

He told the cheering crowd: "We're all union up here on the stage, just like you are down there, and we want you to know we support you."