With the holiday shopping season upon us, AAM’s Scott Paul published an op-ed in last Friday’s Buffalo News that noted a connection between the low cost of Chinese goods and the “dangerous cost” posed by unsafe imports.  Specifically, Scott’s piece asked readers to consider “what the endless procession of ‘Made in China’ labels on goods means to their families”—and why there is an all-too-clear connection between “toxic” imports and “millions of American layoffs.”

It’s not just toys that pose a problem, though, and as AAM Senior Analyst Kerri Houston noted in yesterday’s Harrisburg Patriot News, America’s manufacturing workers “should not have to compete with unrestrained economic cheating and worker exploitation.”  In a timely commentary, Kerri discussed the crux of the “China price”—namely, the “incomplete view that the low cost of Chinese-produced goods outweighs the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs.”  As Kerri pointed out, 202,000 Pennsylvania manufacturing workers have lost their factory jobs since 2000—evidence that a flood of underpriced goods from China can have both consumer safety and job safety issues.

As the discussion of imported product safety continues, American consumers would do well to consider the ramifications of continued dependence on imports. 

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 11:08 pm and is filed under Holding China Accountable, Enforcing Trade Laws. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.