ManufactureThis would like to wish all our readers a Happy July 4th.  We’ll return with our regular content on Monday July 6, but on this Independence Day weekend we want to encourage everyone to ponder the importance of U.S. manufacturing.  Without a strong, secure, self-sufficient industrial base the United States would not have been able to survive and prosper for the past two centuries.  And that’s what independence is all about.

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Lila Kalick of the Campaign for America’s Future penned an excellent piece analyzing the prospects for U.S.-China trade policy under the Obama Administration.   And she notes the significance of the recent ITC decision in favor of U.S. tire manufacturers who were dealing with a surge of tires from China:

On Monday, The International Trade Commission (ITC) unanimously voted to recommend that President Obama impose tariffs on the import of Chinese tires for three years. The new administration will have until September 17 to decide what, if any, relief to provide based on the ITC’s recommendation. Will Obama cave to the power of business lobbies and conservatives to follow in the footsteps of President Bush, or support a policy that will help our long term economy?

Read more.

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The U.S. economy lost 467,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, its highest level in 26 years, according to the latest Labor Department data. Job losses were heavy in the manufacturing sector, with another 136,000 good-paying jobs lost.

Revising U.S. trade policy and strengthening U.S. manufacturing is critical to any attempt at recovery.

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The World Trade Organization (WTO) has issued a report backing the use of global warming import duties. The report states that nations that put cap-and-trade legislation into place to combat global warming may be eligible to apply import duties at the border in order to protect their domestic producers.

“Rules permit, under certain conditions, the use of border tax adjustments on imported and exported products,” states the WTO report published jointly with the United Nations Environment Program. “The objective of a border tax adjustment is to level the playing field between taxed domestic industries and untaxed foreign competition by ensuring that internal taxes on products are trade neutral.

Read more.

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AAM’s Indiana Field Coordinator Mike Mitchell checked in to give us a report of recent news:

“SOAR President Alan Penkowski allowed me the opportunity to give an update on AAM’s activities at his SOAR meeting.  I talked about the ‘Keep it Made in America’ bus tour and saving 7.2 million jobs tied to the U.S. auto parts supply chain.  The possibility of losing 7.2 millions jobs would put a strain  on an already crippled economy. It would add to the 52 million already uninsured and has the potential to increased the number of pensions taken over by PBGC (the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation).

“The SOAR members were glad to hear about the (ITC) International Trade Commission ruling in favor of a USW petition for the domestic tire industry but didn’t find any humor in JC Penney’s advertising an “American Made” T-shirt that was actually made in Mexico.

“SOAR President Alan Penkowski was outraged by the idea of the auto industry offshoring more production while being supported with taxpayers dollars.  He encouraged his members to get involved and call their elected officials.  He said ,”We elected them, they should be working for us, and they need to know that.”

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As we’ve reported many times, there are continuing problems with unsafe imports from China.  And sicne little has changed, it doesn’t surprise us to learn that, as McClatchy News reports, ‘Chinese makers of shoddy goods rarely face U.S. sanctions.’

According to McClatchy News:

Chinese manufacturers made more than half of the goods that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled last year, but few of them paid any price for producing defective wares.

The long list of faulty products included Chinese-made highchairs whose seat backs failed, steam cleaners that burned their users, bikes whose front-wheel forks broke, saunas that overheated, illuminated exit signs that stopped working when commercial power failed, dune buggies whose seat belts broke on impact and coffee makers that overheated and started fires.

Click here to read more.

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New Balance is the only athletic shoe company still producing in the U.S.  This video shows their Skowhegan, Maine factory talking about Made in the USA.

TireBusiness.com is running a poll asking “Do you agree with the ITC’s ruling in favor of the United Steelworkers’ petition seeking to impose quotas on Chinese tire imports?” 

The choices are:  (1) Yes, these imports have harmed the domestic tire industry; (2) No, the imports are an effect, not a cause, of the domestic makers pulling out of some segments; (3) think imports have hurt the domestic industry, but I don’t think trade restrictions are the answer and (4) I’m not sure.

ManufactureThis just answered the poll and selected choice #1.

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USW President Leo Gerard and the New America Foundation’s Leo Hindery have penned a strongly worded op-ed in The Nation that argues for a strong rebuilding of U.S. manufacturing:

The current jobs crisis is in part a reflection of the misplaced priorities of previous administrations, which let America’s manufacturing sector decline vis-a-vis our services economy. As a result, manufacturing industries now represent just 11.5 percent of GDP; the number of people working in manufacturing accounts for only 8.7 percent of the jobs in the country; and we have run an average trade deficit in manufactured goods of more than $500 billion over the past five years, all of which contributed to the huge buildup of US debt in recent years.

This almost complete neglect of our manufacturing base relative to our service sector represents the height of irresponsibility, because compared with those in manufacturing, service jobs pay below median wages, do very little to help America’s balance of trade, have a much smaller multiplier effect on other parts of the economy and mostly just move incomes around the country.

In their conclusion, Gerard and Hindery offer a number of constructive proposals, including significant revisions to U.S. trade policy and ongoing support for Buy America policies.

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Steelworkers descend on Steel Pier.

“The District 10 United Steelworkers conference took place last week in Atlantic City, New Jersey, once the home to

Steel Pier and it’s famous diving horse.  Speakers included the Alliance for American Manufacturing’s Executive Director Scott Paul and the USW liaison to AAM, Ike Gittlen.  The two gave presentations that included discussion of China trade, the climate debate, and manufacturing jobs and infrastructure investment.  Other notable speakers included; Richard Trumpka (AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer), Fred Redmond (USW International Vice President), Charlie Kerrigan (National Labor Committee Director), and Congressman Joe Sestak.”

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