from the site www.sam-usa.org
CALL TO ACTION

FIGHT TO SAVE U. S. MANUFACTURING






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The loss of manufacturing jobs is having a DIRECT IMPACT on the U.S. economy. ALL SECTORS of manufacturing have been hit hard with economic conditions caused by the IMBALANCED Trade policies. North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), World Trade Organization (WTO), and CHINA’s Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR). The MASS EXODUS of AMERICAN JOBS and TECHNOLOGY is due to Trade agreements that are really: "investment agreements" arranged for multinational companies to take advantage of cheap foreign labor. It’s time for the American Silent Majority to speak out and change tax laws that provide perverse incentives to shift U.S. production overseas.



FREE TRADE affords NO BENEFITS for Americans


Well established U.S. companies are CLOSING in record numbers causing the loss of MILLIONS of high paying AMERICAN jobs. ALL AMERICAN jobs are at risk. Losing manufacturing means a lower living standard for U.S. citizens.

Trade deals touted as being MARKET-OPENING agreements have instead DRAMATICALLY WORSENED our Trade balances. These Trade Policies have caused the TRADE DEFICIT to explode and have cost 4.5 million actual and potential U. S. jobs since 1994. Last year the U.S. imported more than $450 billion than we exported, a trade deficit of $1.2 billion per day. The Trade Deficit is 16 times larger than it was 20 years ago and is now 5 percent of GDP. Over the past 10 years it has grown by 600 percent. Our combined trade deficit with CANADA and MEXICO has ballooned to nine times its size BEFORE NAFTA, jumping from $9 billion in 1993 to $83 billion in 2001. The U.S. Department of Labor says more than 450,000 workers have lost their jobs because of NAFTA. Using different methodology, the Economic Policy Institute estimates that the growth in U.S. trade deficits with our NAFTA partners has resulted in a NET LOSS of more than 750,000 U.S. JOBS.

CHINA is now the TOP CONTRIBUTOR to our TRADE DEFICIT. We buy more than $5 worth of goods from CHINA for every $1 we sell, and we ran an $83 billion deficit with CHINA last year. Since CONGRESS granted CHINA Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status and China joined the WTO, the U.S. trade deficit with CHINA has grown more than 20 percent, by more than $14 billion.

U.S. Manufacturers are in an ECONOMIC CRISIS, yet our "OUT OF TOUCH" government has turned a blind eye to this problem. Manufacturers have been in a SEVERE RECESSION since 1999.

Recent "token" measures meant to address this economic crisis came in the form of a TARIFF on IMPORTED STEEL. This "measure" has exacerbated the problem by further stifling U.S. Manufacturing’s competitiveness in the global economic system. Most manufacturers advise that CHINA is now exporting FINISHED GOODS to the U.S. marketplace for less than the COST of our RAW MATERIALS.

Statistics show the United States has lost more than 2.5 MILLION manufacturing JOBS since APRIL 1998, accounting for 90 percent of the jobs lost in the past four years. In the past six months, every state has lost manufacturing jobs, statistics provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As a share of total private non farm jobs, manufacturing declined since its peak of 40 percent just after World War II to 28 percent in 1979 and now stands at 15 percent. Has anyone in government noticed that the loss of HIGH PAYING MANUFACTURING JOBS means there is LESS TAX money being COLLECTED?

The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has passed Tax Incentives that promote the EXPORT of our Engineering & Manufacturing Technology to foreign countries. These tax incentives are further WEAKENING our country both ECONOMICALLY and MILITARILY while STRENGTHENING OUR ENEMIES. We are becoming ever more dependent on Foreign IMPORTS!

This decline CANNOT be ALLOWED to continue as manufacturing is the mainstay of many state’s economies and is critical to maintaining a vibrant national economy. During and after World War II, manufacturing built this nation’s middle class. Today, manufacturing provides jobs in many sectors, including traditional industrial jobs as well as positions in communications technology, construction, transportation, and services.

Restoring AMERICA’S manufacturing base and production capacity is essential for national security in these uncertain times. We should not compromise our ability to build ships, vehicles, airplanes, space vehicles, satellites, machine tools and other materials that are VITAL to our NATIONAL DEFENSE. DEPENDENCE on COMMUNIST RED CHINA could be a SEVERE PROBLEM for the UNITED STATES MILITARY in a time of war. Do you remember what happened when CHINA intentionally downed our NAVY RECON plane, we were POWERLESS to RESPOND.

AMERICAN MADE PRODUCTS are disappearing from stores shelves and are replaced by the massive onslaught of foreign subsidized and VASTLY UNDER PRICED foreign products. The Trade Deficit is at EPIC proportions.
No other industrial country runs trade deficits like we do: Europe’s trade deficit is one-tenth the size of ours and Japan runs a trade surplus. Numerous non-tariff barriers and regulations protect other industrialized country’s markets.

LEGISLATORS tell us they work for the GOOD of ALL AMERICANS yet the TRADE LEGISLATION they've enacted demonstrates they really work for FOREIGN OWNED, MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATIONS. It's time to educate them as to who they really work for?