AAM’s “force of nature” Senior Analyst, Kerri Houston, clocked in with a strong editorial in the Scranton Times-Tribune last week.  Kerri noted that Pennsylvanians need to ask serious questions of the candidates as to how they’ll address China’s cheating on trade agreements.

  We’ve included Kerri’s op-ed below, for your interest.

Time for bull in China shop 
BY KERRI HOUSTON
GUEST COLUMNIST

A big red boot with a prominent yellow star is running roughshod over Pennsylvania, stomping on jobs in its wake.

Pennsylvania’s workers and business owners are well aware of the impact of its footprint, as are the state’s governor, legislators, and the employees of the Pennsylvania’s Unemployment Compensation office.

It appears that the only souls that have not noticed the state’s devastating and ongoing job losses to China belong to presidential candidates.

Although manufacturing still accounts for $73.9 billion of Pennsylvania’s gross state product and is the largest individual contributor to the statewide economy, the state has lost more than 207,400 manufacturing jobs since 2000; 78,000 of those have been lost to China since 2001.

As a result of its cheating, China has accumulated the largest trade surplus in global history, and a $256 billion annual trade deficit with the U.S. alone. Despite winning through dishonest trade, China has so far incurred no cost.

Pennsylvania is an ideal manufacturing state. With a sophisticated highway and railway network and water transport links, goods quickly can be shipped from Pennsylvania. The state also has a highly skilled work force and an April 22 primary showdown between Democratic candidates Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that is currently giving it a loud voice.

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rates took a sharp upward turn five years ago, and its current 4.9 percent rate belies pockets of higher unemployment. Some mid-state counties such as Cambria and Somerset have unemployment rates above 6.1 percent.

In our global economy, it is reasonable to expect a flow of labor and trade, but Pennsylvanians should not have to compete with economic cheating and worker exploitation.

China ignores international treaty obligations and flaunts its non-compliance fearlessly. Although it promised to end currency manipulation when joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, it continues undervaluing its currency, making its goods cheaper and ours more expensive. Chinese manufacturers, predominately owned by the government, are given free land, infrastructure, and “loans” with no expectation of payback.

In the last five years, the Chinese government poured $52 billion of subsidies into its state-owned steel industry.

Chinese manufacturing benefits financially from ignoring accepted environmental safety regulations. Waterways and wells in China run red and purple with dyes and toxins. Many Chinese factories disregard international norms for workers by embracing low pay, forced labor and deplorable conditions for workers.

The migration of jobs to China also has serious national security implications. Military equipment sits idle in repair centers as the few American companies that provide spare parts or the tools needed to attach them have dwindled. Humvees receive armor at an agonizing pace as only one U.S. manufacturer of armored steel remains.

China’s profits from its highly subsidized manufacturers that allow it to increase its military funding rapidly — by 18.2 percent last year, much of it focused on emerging military space applications.

Despite the ability for the U.S. to address China’s cheating through existing trade laws, our government has done little. But Pennsylvania’s place as an important swing state in November provides an opportunity for Pennsylvanians to pose questions to presidential hopefuls about U.S. job losses and China’s economic threat.

None of the frontrunners from either party have addressed China’s cheating or its effect on our nation’s manufacturing and security.

Pennsylvania citizens have earned the right to ask: “If you are president, what are you going to do about enforcing our trade laws and reversing the cheating that makes it impossible for us to compete fairly in the global marketplace?”

If the people don’t ask, the candidates can’t answer.
 
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This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 6:13 pm and is filed under Holding China Accountable, AAM. 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.