GREEN RIVER -- You can expect to see a candle or a clock made out of Wyoming-mined trona show up on the desk of U.S. Trade Representative Ronald Kirk this week, courtesy of Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.

Lummis wants Kirk to see the little reminder each day and think of Wyoming's struggling soda ash industry before he meets with Chinese representatives later this month as part of the revamped U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue meetings.

When the discussions on such larger issues as automobile tires, pork sales and intellectual property theft are done, Lummis is hoping Kirk will remember to press China to reduce or eliminate a contentious tax rebate on soda ash exports to bring their prices more in line with Wyoming's producers.

"It's easy to forget about soda ash when you see these larger issues looming," said Lummis, who met with Kirk and his staff in late September to discuss the plight of Wyoming's soda ash industry in the wake of growing competition from China.

"I just want to make sure that our issue doesn't get lost in the process, and if he has to look at that piece of trona every day ... maybe it won't," Lummis said in a phone interview.

"My goal is to keep this issue on the radar screen of our trade representative," she said. "Whenever they go to China for direct talks, I want to make sure that not only are hogs and tires on the agenda, but that soda ash is always on the agenda."

Wyoming's industry has faced hard times this year.

Two Green River producers announced plans to reduce their work force by just more than 100 employees because of the economic downturn, including the nation's largest soda ash producer FMC Corp.

Soda ash is the primary component for manufacturing glass, detergents and other industrial products and chemicals.

About 93 percent of American soda ash is produced in the Green River Basin in southwest Wyoming by four multinational corporations.

Wyoming soda ash accounts for about a third of the world's market. In 2003, China surpassed the United States as the world's leading soda ash producer.

About 95 percent of Chinese soda ash production is done through a synthetic process, which is energy intensive and environmentally unfriendly.

China's cheap labor laws and lower transportation costs give the country a big advantage over Wyoming producers, who are hampered by high shipping costs to the coast, growing energy costs and strict environmental laws.

Wyoming's congressional delegation has labored for years to ease international trade barriers perceived to be unfair to American producers.

The delegation spurred Congress in 2006 to lower the federal royalty rate for trona from 6 percent to 2 percent, in part to help the industry compete with China.

Rep. Lummis, in her first term, is also championing the cause. She said China continues to post unfair trade barriers that hurt Wyoming's soda ash producers.

Most recently, the government-run Chinese soda ash industry applied a 9 percent value-added tax rebate to Chinese exports of soda ash, which is giving Chinese producers a leg up on American soda ash producers.

The rebate allows Chinese soda ash producers to consistently undercut American companies by setting lower prices for the product on the world market.

"They're providing incentives for their substitute product (synthetic soda ash) ... but we know we have a better natural soda ash product," Lummis said.

"I wanted Ambassador Kirk to realize that there have been dozens and dozens of layoffs in southwest Wyoming's [soda ash industry] as a direct result of China's ... unfair trade competition," she said. "And I found him very receptive to our plight."

Contact southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino at 307-875-5359 or gearino@tribcsp.com