A coalition of manufacturing and trade policy experts and labor officials launched a campaign in Washington to step up political support of manufacturing in America through fundamental policy, structural, trade and political changes, including more aggressive filing of trade cases.
“We do not want to see the last factory in America close down within our lifetimes,” said Gilbert B. Kaplan, president of the Committee to Support U.S. Trade Laws and prime organizer of the conference.
“The decline of American manufacturing happened not because of some inevitable shift to a post-manufacturing economy as some argue, but because the United States has picked the wrong policies and not paid attention to preserving and growing manufacturing,” Kaplan said. “America urgently needs unequivocal and bi-partisan policies in support of reviving manufacturing, with clear performance goals and timelines for action.”
However, policy shifts alone are insufficient, the groups say. They released a Statement of Principles outlining the structural, economic and legislative changes also required to bring factories back from the brink and restore jobs, including:
Changing tax policy so that manufacturing in the United States is encouraged, not discouraged, and making sure that imports pay their fair share of taxes;
Creating tax policies that foster manufacturing investment by strengthening R&D and capital investment, and allowing for accelerated depreciation;
Providing grants and low-interest loans to companies that manufacture in the U.S. (as long as other countries’ governments are providing assistance to their industries);
Encouraging a change in corporate culture so that manufacturing in the U.S. becomes a primary objective, and moving plants off-shore is discouraged;
Changing the governmental policy apparatus so that there is a strong spokesman for manufacturing at a senior governmental level; and
Maximizing the use of domestically produced goods on all taxpayer-funded projects, consistent with our international obligations.
The groups also call for major reforms to a trade system that has failed American manufacturers. Among the groups’ recommendations are:
A “plus jobs and plus factories” requirement for all existing trade agreements and future agreements, in which it can be shown that the agreement on a net basis has created jobs and encouraged factory builds in the U.S.;
A policy decision to balance trade in the U.S. by a date certain in the future;
In the short term, passage of legislation to require strict adherence to trade agreements and compliance with trade orders, and the countervailing of currency undervaluation;
In the longer term, a comprehensive review and rewrite by the Congress of our trade laws, which have not been changed significantly since the Uruguay Round Act in 1994;
Creation of an unfair trade strike force in the U.S. government that will self-initiate trade cases;
Simplification of the trade case process to make it cheaper, faster, and more effective;
Addressing the fact that many imported products are not bearing environmental and health care costs; and
Starting a Manufacturing Round of trade talks, the main goal of which is to negotiate changes in the rules of the trading system so we can reclaim some of our basic manufacturing capacity.
“What America makes has always made America,” said Clyde V. Prestowitz Jr., president of the Economic Strategy Institute. “From the foundation of our country, manufacturing has always been the main driver of its wealth and technological advances. This did not happen by accident. Rather, from the cotton gin and telegraph to the Internet, America’s political leaders worked closely with industry and labor to introduce new policies that sparked and fostered American industrial and technological leadership. Today we must revitalize our economy by remembering our history and renewing the foundations of our broad productive base through the close cooperation of industry, labor and government.”
The Statement also calls on Congress to undertake specific legislative initiatives in the near term to revive manufacturing, including:
- Legislation to countervail currency undervaluation and enhance enforcement of trade case orders;
- Rewriting U.S. trade laws in the next session to bring them up to date, to deal with the realities of the 21st century, and to make sure they are effective in preserving and reviving U.S. manufacturing; and
- Passage of a Manufacturing Education Act that will develop targeted vocational and technical training programs at both the secondary and post-secondary level to strengthen manufacturing education, and fund programs and institutions to improve the skills of career-changing adults interested in manufacturing jobs.
The full text of the Statement is available at www.supportustradelaws.com.
The Committee to Support U.S. Trade Laws is an organization of companies, trade associations, labor unions, workers, and individuals committed to preserving and enhancing U.S. trade laws. CSUSTL’s members span all sectors, including manufacturing, technology, agriculture, mining and energy, and services. CSUSTL is dedicated to ensuring that the unfair trade laws are not weakened through legislation or policy decisions in Washington, D.C., in international negotiations, or through dispute settlements at the World Trade Organization and elsewhere.
The Economic Strategy Institute is a private, non-profit, non-partisan public policy research organization dedicated to assuring that globalization works with market forces to achieve maximum benefits rather than distorting markets, and imposing costs. This should be achieved on the basis of principles, policies, and institutions consistent with democratic values. Because security and national welfare will increasingly depend on performance in the global marketplace, the Economic Strategy Institute is particularly concerned with developing national and corporate strategies to assure that globalization takes place on a level playing field and the reality is mutually beneficial.
The U.S. Economy/Smart Globalization Initiative of the New America Foundation will inform the way American policy-makers approach global economic integration and the American economy. Its overriding goal is to make globalization work better for the economy by advancing a competitiveness and economic growth agenda that seeks to rebuild America's productive middle-class and re-balance the global economy. The Initiative will put forward policy proposals for advancing the competitiveness of American-based businesses, for preventing the unfair trade and industrial practices of neo-mercantilist economies, and for putting the U.S. and emerging economies on the path to mutually reinforcing productivity revolutions and mutually rising living standards.
