Foreign Trade Policy

[TheSpyder]

I don't usually contribute to this section as I make a point not to be on one side or another which contributes to most of the discussion here. To be honest, I'm not on either side as a direct result to seeing what our trade policies have been the last 20 years. This grandeos idea of world trade and quickly dismantled our manufacturing base has left us weakened in so many ways. From the world political standpoint it's about the only area I have studied and kept abreast with and I believe it holds a significant place for a lot of our troubles.

For example our trade deficet with our two top trading partners China and Canada is as follows:

1988 1998 2008 (Billions of $)

China 3.5 56.9 266
Canada 9.8 16.6 74.2

Now, this was all our choice (our government) in making policy to allow this trade. What it means to me as someone in the textile industry is that the apparel manufactures left (sewing is labor intensive), then the fabric producers left, then the yarn producers left. I have seen hundreds of mills close down from LA to Miami to Maine and everywhere in between.

Right now the military is most likely the largest customer of our manufacturing. But what if peace happens or spending is cut?

What these numbers don't reveal is the supporting industries that these jobs sustained, the food industry, repair people, health insurance, taxes to the government, office supplies, and on and on and on. Just as there are many industries that support horse racing behind the scenes, the same goes for manufacturing.

What troubles me is we basically gave away these industies to many counties that have cival rights issues, no pollution policy, and a history of treating workers unfairly and they don't like us. (No, I'm not talking about Canada). Did you know that Viet Nam is the new place to go...why? Because their labor rates are lower than China. China's middle class is replacing our middle class. It's easy to see.

We need to rework these trade policies to bring manufacturing back. Maybe not all, but a great deal of what we have given away. The power of he retail giants (Walmart, etc.) has tremendous political clout. As manufactures have been fragmented, they have had little say.

This will create first line jobs, taxes, and a whole array of secondary jobs to support these industries.

No one talkes about this, either party, til now. It's a voice that's starting and will get louder as time goes on.

I say to death with Globalization. No free trade, only fair trade