{"id":68,"date":"2010-08-10T16:53:41","date_gmt":"2010-08-10T23:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/?p=68"},"modified":"2010-08-10T16:53:41","modified_gmt":"2010-08-10T23:53:41","slug":"is-an-american-manufacturing-renaissance-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/general\/is-an-american-manufacturing-renaissance-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"Is an American Manufacturing Renaissance Possible?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Committee to Support U. S. Trade Laws (CSUSTL) is organizing a \u201cConference on the Renaissance of American Manufacturing\u201d at the National Press Club on September 28th<\/sup> in Washington, D. C. to discuss how to get the United States back in business as a world leader in manufacturing and create political momentum going into the fall congressional elections that will lead to changes in government policies to benefit U. S. manufacturers and their workers. Other issues to be discussed include structural changes needed in the United States; what must be done to bring manufacturing back; how to make trade laws and trade agreements effective for the manufacturing sector; and the politics of rebuilding manufacturing.\u00a0 The conference is open to the public.\u00a0 To register, send an email to privas@kslaw.com.<\/p>\n

The CSUSTL is an organization of companies, trade associations, labor unions, workers, and individuals committed to preserving and enhancing U. S. trade laws.\u00a0 CSUSTL\u2019s members span all sectors, including manufacturing, technology, agriculture, mining, energy, and services.\u00a0 CSUSTL is dedicated to ensuring that the already weak trade laws are not further weakened through legislation or policy decisions in Washington, D. C., in international negotiations, or through dispute settlements at the World Trade Organization and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Gilbert Kaplan, president of CSUSTL, said \u201cA lot of people are concerned about manufacturing all across the spectrum, in the Democratic and Republican parties. But we keep losing manufacturing jobs, and plants are moving off-shore.\u00a0 The question is why haven\u2019t we made progress and what do we need to do to make more progress?\u201d (Friday, July 30, 2010 Manufacturing & Technology News<\/em>)<\/p>\n

As reported on September 9, 2009 in PRNewswire<\/a><\/em>, CSUSTL submitted comments to the Office of the U. S. Trade Representative regarding the proposed U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement.\u00a0 CSUSTL strongly objected to the antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) provisions of the section on trade remedies, citing concerns that the proposed measures would result in changes to the related legal processes, ultimately jeopardizing the ability of U. S. business to seek relief when harmed by unfairly-priced foreign imports<\/p>\n

Mr. David Hartquist, Executive Director of CSUSTL, remarked, \u201cWhile there is no doubt that the Agreement offers some economic benefits to U. S. industry, there is a strong risk that these U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement provision could seriously put at risk the integrity and enforceability of U.S. AD\/CVD laws, which should be at the core of U. S. trade policy . . . they would set a very dangerous precedent for future free trade agreements the United States may enter with other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, August 5, 2010<\/a>, CSUSTL commended U. S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) for their legislation introduced to combat the evasion of U. S. trade remedy laws through custom fraud.\u00a0 CSUSTL President Gilbert Kaplan said, \u201cPassing this legislation will give the U. S. government the tools it needs to prevent bad actors from committing fraud and evasion to avoid paying antidumping and countervailing duties.\u00a0 This is particularly crucial for U. S. companies struggling to recover from the recession that have trade orders in place.\u00a0 It is now more important than ever to have strong and enforceable trade laws in this country.\u201d\u00a0 The Enforcing Orders and Reducing Circumvention and Evasion Act of 2010 (ENFORCE Act) gives the Department of Commerce the authority to investigate possible circumvention of AD\/CVD orders.\u00a0 It establishes, for the first time, a procedure whereby U. S. industry can petition the U. S. government to investigate specific allegations of AD\/CVD evasion.<\/p>\n

Roger Schagrin, Chairman of CSUSTL\u2019s Government Affairs Committee urged the House and Senate to \u201cact on enforcement legislation this year, so that we can end evasion that reduces the utility of trade remedy orders and impedes economic recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

The United States and the Republic of Korea signed the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement on June 30, 2007, but Congress hasn\u2019t ratified it yet.<\/p>\n

During his presidential campaign, then Senator Barack Obama pledged to \u201ccreate good paying jobs here in America<\/a>\u201d in a speech to the United Steelworkers Union in 2008, but now as President, \u201chis insistence to forge ahead with a trade pact negotiated under the Bush administration and almost universally loathed in his own party has baffled some, who say it is a betrayal of his campaign promises on trade.\u201d\u00a0 While some Congressional Democrats have vowed to fight against the agreement, many critics are now calling for the agreement to be renegotiated instead of scrapped altogether.<\/p>\n

In a letter to the president<\/a>, Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) wrote, We believe the Administration must focus on driving a hard bargain with Korea \u2013 one that shows success in gaining market access while combating unfair trade practices, and providing a new framework that gives confidence to American producers and manufacturers that global trade deals product jobs and better living conditions at home and abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Economic Policy Institute\u2019s<\/a> estimates, the agreement could cost as many as 159,000 American jobs and increase the trade deficit by $16.7 billion in just the first seven years.\u00a0 With unemployment hovering around 10 percent and an employment gap of nearly 11 million jobs, the last thing needed is a trade agreement that will cost more American jobs and raise the trade deficit.<\/p>\n

Would it be any different on trade issues if Republicans took back control of Congress in November?\u00a0 Not according to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.\u00a0 On August 2, 2010<\/a>, he reportedly said that voters could expect less spending and government intervention and a renewed push to finish free trade deals with Colombia, South Korea and Panama.<\/p>\n

It would seem that no matter which political party controls Congress, American manufacturers and their workers lose, either through oppressive regulations and taxes that drive jobs overseas or through free trade agreements that entice the export of jobs.\u00a0 Will either party ever come to the realization that what the American people need is jobs?\u00a0\u00a0 If our elected representatives don\u2019t wake up, it will not be possible to have an American manufacturing renaissance that would create the jobs our country needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Committee to Support U. S. Trade Laws (CSUSTL) is organizing a \u201cConference on the Renaissance of American Manufacturing\u201d at the National Press Club on September 28th in Washington, D. C. to discuss how to get the United States back in business as a world leader in manufacturing and create political momentum going into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions\/70"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}