“A Year Late and a Bit Short”
Posted by SCapozzola on July 22nd, 2008So, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) hit the streets yesterday with a 28-state bus tour aimed at promoting “the importance of trade to creating jobs and driving U.S. economic growth.” The bus tour, headlined, “America Wins with Trade,” was launched in Manhattan with speeches by New Your City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Computer World CEO Rachelle Friedman.
CEA President Gary Shapiro said that launching the tour in New York would be a good start since Manhattan “represents the power of trade and free markets.”
Funny that the CEA is so concerned about free markets. China, with whom the U.S. racked up its largest ever bilateral trade deficit in 2007 ($256 billion), is notorious for violating free market principles. The subsidies, dumping, and illegal currency manipulation employed by Beijing distort the open market. Such practices also cost millions of U.S. manufacturing jobs, so it’s no wonder that Americans are starting to view trade policy with a critical eye, or what the CEA patronizingly refers to as “naysayers.”
If the CEA really wants to make a case for fair and balanced trade, they might try to emulate the national tour that AAM launched back in 2007. AAM supports trade, which is why we held a series of Town Hall meetings throughout the country to help unravel the doublespeak and misrepresentations that plague many discussions of trade policy.
For example, the CEA notes that the consumer electronics industry “is projected to generate $1.4 trillion in direct business activity this year and directly employ more than 4.4 million Americans.” Sounds good, but it fails to acknowledge that while the U.S. exported $146.4 billion worth of consumer goods in 2007, it imported a much greater $474.9 billion worth. Such large and continuing deficits in various hi-tech sectors mean that, rather than earning higher wages in the manufacture of consumer electronic equipment, more and more American workers are being forced to downshift to hourly retail work selling foreign-made electronic goods at the local mall.
And so the CEA takes to the road with what ManufactureThis politely deems an incomplete message. It is nice to know, though, that our idea of taking the trade discussion to the people has found imitators. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Steven, I won’t argue the fact that we can do a better job negotiating our trade agreements with our global partners, at the same time we should approve those trade agreements which have been negotiated and let US companies try to sell in those markets (Colombia, Panama, South Korea). The CEA campaign is taking that message on the road, and Congress needs to hear it from voters as well as business people.
At the same time, I suggest you read the PCIC report on the Apple Ipod (http://pcic.merage.uci.edu/papers/2007/AppleiPod.pdf) which might give you a different view of that Chinese trade deficit for electronics.