Stabenow, Senate: Administration Must Take Strong Action Against Illegal Chinese, Japanese Trade Practices
Stabenow, Senate: Administration Must Take Strong Action Against Illegal Chinese, Japanese Trade Practices
President, Congress must act to protect manufacturing jobs, senator says
As the president prepares for a trip to China and Japan in November, U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow today rallied the unanimous backing of the U.S. Senate to send a clear signal that trade violations by our major Asian trading partners will not be tolerated.
"Illegal Chinese and Japanese trade policies are destroying U.S. industries, costing us jobs and hurting our middle class," Stabenow told Senate colleagues today. "We need to enforce our trade laws and end these illegal trade practices, and my legislation provides the president with the strongest possible support for driving this point home to our Asian trading partners."
The Senate's message to China and Japan took the form of a Stabenow-sponsored amendment that funds actions against trade violations, including currency manipulation, counterfeiting of manufactured products, and pirating of intellectual property. The amendment was adopted unanimously.
Stabenow said the recent bankruptcy declaration by Delphi Corp., the nation's larges auto parts supplier and the employer of almost 15,000 Michigan workers, sounds a wake-up call on unfair trade practices.
Stabenow, who has helped lead the fight against illegal trade practices, said Michigan is on the front lines of the trade issues. "Manufacturing jobs are the lifeblood of almost every community in Michigan. We are beyond just talk - we have to have action," she said. "These illegal trade practices attack our very way of life, and my amendment sends a signal that we will stand up to the Chinese and Japanese governments and stand up for our working families.
"Some economists have calculated that China's currency manipulation can give China's exports a price advantage of as much a 40 percent, artificially lowering the price of the goods they ship to us and artificially jacking up the price of everything we try to ship to them," Stabenow said. "For example, currency manipulation can make a mid-sized American car - a product close to the heart of Michigan manufacturing - $2,000 more expensive in the Chinese and Japanese market."
Another illegal trade practice, counterfeiting of U.S. manufactured goods, not only kills American jobs but also has the potential to cause deadly accidents, when shoddy counterfeit auto parts replace legitimate, U.S.-made - often Michigan-made - parts. In addition to these safety concerns, the auto industry alone loses an estimated $12 billion in annual global sales to counterfeiting, Stabenow said.
http://stabenow.senate.gov/press/2005/102005IllegalChineseJapaneseTradePract.htm