By Dave Johnson
Fellow, Campaign for America's Future

Yesterday the Brown-Merkley Amendment #1819 passed the Senate with a voice vote! Sen. Sherrod Brown made a brief floor speech that noted that the amendment closes a loophole by which companies evaded current Buy America requirements by breaking up jobs into small pieces that could then be outsourced. “The San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge was the most outrageous example of that,” he said, noting that the contract was broken up into 28 pieces that enabled the steel for the bridge to be brought in from a Chinese firm.

As I wrote last week, this amendment accomplishes the following:
•Transparency: Requires agencies to provide notification on a public website and a 15 day comment period before proposed waivers of Buy America preferences are granted – similar to current practice by FHWA.
•Reporting: Requires an annual report on the use of Buy America waivers for transportation projects, including justification for each waiver and the monetary value for each waiver.
•Closes the “Segmentation” Loophole: Ensures that public works projects receiving federal aid cannot be “segmented” to evade Buy America preferences by clarifying that Buy America applies to contracts carried out within the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) assessment – same language in amendment to H.R. 7 by Rep. Cravaack (R-MN) passed in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
•Works with Trade Agreements: Requires that Buy America preferences be carried out in a manner consistent with our international trade agreements.

About Buy America

Buy America provisions support American companies and workers by giving a preference to domestically produced iron, steel, and other manufactured goods in infrastructure projects that receive federal aid. They have commonsense exceptions that permit waivers to allow procurement of foreign product when there is insufficient domestic capacity, if the cost of the domestic product is unreasonable, or when the administering agency deems the waiver to be in the public interest.

The following is from a press release from the office of Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH):

“Buy America” provisions support American companies and workers by giving a preference to domestically-produced iron, steel, and other manufactured goods in infrastructure projects that receive federal aid. They are administered by several Department of Transportation agencies, with common-sense exceptions that permit waivers to allow the procurement of foreign-made products when there is insufficient domestic capacity, if the cost of the domestic product is unreasonable, or when the administering agency deems the waiver to be in the public interest.

However, over time, the effectiveness of “Buy America” preferences has been compromised by various loopholes to avoid sourcing goods and materials domestically. One of the most egregious examples is “segmentation,” whereby a project is split into various contracts and federal aid is not used on those where the contractor intends to use foreign iron, steel, and manufactured goods – bypassing American workers and evading the law. This loophole allowed Chinese-made steel to be used in the new Oakland, California Bay Bridge. Closing this loophole helps to ensure that Buy America is effectively enforced. (more…)

By David Sirota
Political journalist, best-selling author and syndicated newspaper columnist

Many economic Nostradamuses have long predicted that the epitaph on America’s tombstone will ultimately read, “Made In China.” But casual observers probably didn’t think the funeral procession would happen this fast. In the last year, though, most have wised up. Thanks to a spate of mind-blowing headlines, we are learning that the Chinese invasion isn’t just a distant possibility — it’s happening right now.

First, in February, ABC News reported that almost every Americana-themed trinket sold in the Smithsonian Institute is made in China. Then news hit that San Francisco is importing its new bay bridge from China. Then came the New York Times dispatch about the Big Apple awarding Chinese state-subsidized firms huge taxpayer-funded contracts to “renovate the subway system, refurbish the Alexander Hamilton Bridge over the Harlem River and build a new Metro-North train platform near Yankee Stadium.”

Astounding as all of that is, it was quickly topped by news last week reminding us that the new Martin Luther King monument in Washington was designed by a Chinese government sculptor and assembled by low-wage Chinese workers. (more…)

I am not a tradesperson.  I’m one of those college grads who has made a living off of ideas not goods – I struggle just to change a washer on a faucet!

But USW International President Leo Gerard’s words on This Week with Christiane Amanpour were like a splash of cold water on a drunk’s face – we need to sober up and listen.

The arrogance of the people around that table – their obvious disinterest about the actual cost of cheap goods – was appalling and depressing.

It was clear that because his name has “union” after it, Mr. Gerard was pigeonholed. Instead of a conversation which he obviously wanted – and we the public need to hear – it was dueling sound bites.

I think you need develop a coordinated public relatioins campaign to find non-union people who will echo and expand on what Mr. Gerard is saying across all social platforms to strengthen his hand.

The soil is sweet for his ideas – but the people you need to grow it are going to bristle when they hear “union.”

A public relations campaign of non-union people could carry some of your water and a lot of this message.

To sum up: he was brilliant. I wish there was a way for a non-union person like me to help. Beyond buying American, of course.

Lynn Pounian
Chicago, Ill.

***

To submit a blog to Free Speech Zone, e-mail it to bstack@usw.org. Keep it to 250 words or fewer. You MUST include your full name, hometown, and state. You may attach a photograph of yourself. Please include a phone number. This WILL NOT be published. Posting any given blog is within the discretion of the USW.  No blog using foul language (this is a family site), false information (we don’t want to get sued), or unnecessary personal attacks (again, we don’t want to get sued) will be used. Wait a reasonable period of time, then blog again! This is a Free Speech Zone.

The other day I posted Whirlpool Bites Hands Of American Taxpayers That Feed It saying, in summary,

• Whirlpool closes a plant in Evansville
• Taxpayers will shoulder the unemployment and other costs.
• All the local supplier, transportation and other third-party jobs are destroyed.
• Even more home foreclosures in the area as a result.
• Local businesses are stressed or have to go out of business.
• They are playing nearby Iowa against Indiana for tax breaks and subsidies to keep just a few of the jobs.
• Whirlpool is profiting from making all this someone else’s problem.
• And, of course, Wall Street celebrates the move.

A Whirlpool spokesperson responded, leading to the post, Whirlpool Exec Responds: The System Made Us Do It, taking a look at the bigger picture that forces our companies like Whirlpool to do these things that destroy people, communities and our economy,

“The spokesperson for Whirlpool is exactly right. It is the system that makes them do this. They are only following the market’s orders.”

I thought that was the end of it, but whoa, what’s this? Whirlpool Threatens Workers: Protesting Plant Closure Risks ‘Future Jobs’

A major corporation planning to shut down a factory in Indiana has warned its union workers that they’ll endanger their future job prospects if they protest the plant’s closing.

. . . Activists planned a high-profile protest for this Friday, with AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka visiting the plant for the first time. But Whirlpool says the effort is futile — they are fully committed to shutting the plant down. The company, however, still seems quite wary of the potential for bad publicity. In a memo sent to its employees and passed along to the Huffington Post, Paul Coburn, division vice president for Whirlpool’s Evansville Division, offers a fairly explicit warning to his workers: If they join Trumka’s protest they would seriously risk future employment opportunity.

Threatening workers who show up at the protest that they risk future employment? Click through to read the entire report and to see Whirlpool’s letter.

And take action: Tell Whirlpool: Keep It Made in America and Save Our Jobs.

 ***

This post originally appeared at the Campaign for America’s Future (CAF).

***

Johnson also is a fellow at the Commonweal Institute and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for the Renewal of the California Dream.

***

Follow Dave Johnson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dcjohnson

Mike Elk

By Mike Elk
Of Campaign for America’s Future

Conservatives have started a disturbing pattern of attacking Democrats for the consequences of weak Buy America provisions in last year’s Recovery Act, even though they opposed the tougher Buy America provisions that would have averted the problems in the first place.

Last week, I wrote about how Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele launched this Republican talking point:

… Steele blasted the Obama administration in a fund-raising email earlier this week for allowing stimulus money designated for clean energy solutions to be spent on overseas companies. Which is interesting, because stimulus money going to overseas firms was the direct result of conservative opposition to attempts to keep that money in America.

Now it seems that Sarah Palin has joined the chorus of flip-flopping conservatives opposed to Buy America, who ignore the fact that progressive Democrats were fighting for Buy America language in the stimulus. Palin wrote on her Facebook wall:

“We were promised it would provide “green jobs” for Americans, but 80% of the $2 billion they spent on alternative energy went to purchase wind turbines built in China!”

While some of the money did go to foreign companies to spend on windmill components built overseas, a lot of that money went to the U.S.-based subsidiaries of foreign companies. Russ Choma, author of the study which Palin cites, rebuts Palin in this Politifact article:

The Investigative Reporting Workshop’s story on stimulus dollars and the wind industry came in two parts. In October 2009, it published its first analysis. The group found that of the $1.05 billion in clean-energy grants already handed out by the Department of Energy, about 84 percent — or $849 million — ended up in the hands of foreign wind companies. We spoke with Russ Choma, the story’s author, who explained that these grants are given to U.S.-based wind projects, but that many of these projects are being built by the American subsidiaries of foreign-owned companies. For instance, on Sept. 22, 2009, the DOE awarded $464.2 million to wind projects, and all of it went to local subsidiaries of foreign companies, according to the report. Those companies include Iberdrola, a Spanish company that received $250.9 million; the American subsidiary of Japan’s Eurus Energy, which got $91.3 million; and the American subsidiary of Germany’s E.ON Group, which received $121.9 million. Choma also points out that the wind turbine manufacturing industry in the United States is relatively weak compared to those abroad; of the 1,807 turbines erected in the United States as a result of the stimulus grants, foreign-owned manufacturers made 1,219, according to the report.

Besides Palin misrepresenting the facts, Palin fails to note that her fellow conservative Republicans opposed Buy America language, labeling it“bad for America.”

As I noted last week:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain went on CBS’s Face the Nation on February 8, 2009:

“I think it has policy changes in it which are fundamentally bad for America. For example, their ‘Buy America’ provision: that’s protectionism, and that did not work in any time in our history.”

As recently as October 2009, GOP Congressional leaders held an event to call for the rollback of Buy America provisions claiming that Buy America provisions were “costing American jobs.”

This is just another example of Republicans obfuscating their positions in order to win votes. But what’s disturbing is that there is a margin of truth in what they say. Because Buy America provisions were weak in the stimulus bill, some of the money (though not as much as Palin claims) did go overseas. It happened because Democrats failed to put up a strong enough fight.

That can’t happen again. As Congress considers a jobs bill, it’s important that we encourage members not to compromise on Buy America provisions. If Democrats allow Buy America to be weakened, conservatives will use the result to attack them anyway. They should instead force Republicans into a real, round-the-clock filibuster Buy America language. That will show just how patriotic conservatives are when its comes to using American taxpayer money to give Americans jobs.

Mike Elk

 By Mike Elk
Of Campaign for America’s Future

GOP Chairman Michael Steele blasted the Obama administration in a fund-raising email earlier this week for allowing stimulus money designated for clean energy solutions to be spent on overseas companies. Which is interesting, because stimulus money going to overseas firms was the direct result of conservative opposition to attempts to keep that money in America.

Steele wrote:

Obama Promised Recovery Act “Will Create Good Jobs That Pay Well And Can’t Be Shipped Overseas.” (The White House, “Remarks By the President and the Vice President on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,” 4/13/09)

REALITY: Recently Distributed Stimulus Funds Going To Foreign Corporations Creating Jobs Overseas. “Nearly half of the $2.4 billion in federal grant money awarded Wednesday to stimulate the U.S. economy and boost the production of hybrid and electric vehicles went to six companies with ties to places as far away as Russia, China, South Korea and France. … But because so few American companies have the necessary technology, much of the money will initially go toward manufacturing electric vehicle batteries overseas.” (Jerry Seper, “Obama Sends Stimulus Aid To Foreign Firms,” The Washington Times, 8/6/09)

Steele is pointing out a fact that United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard noted months ago on CAF’s website:

Of the $1.05 billion in clean energy grants awarded by D.C., $849 million — 84 percent — went to foreign wind companies, according to an analysis by Russ Choma of the Investigative Reporting Workshop.

Gerard, who as president of the nation’s largest industrial union in the country was intimately involved in the negotiations, said :

A strong, broad Buy-American clause in the stimulus bill could have prevented the off-shoring of U.S. tax dollars intended to create jobs for unemployed Americans. My union, the United Steelworkers, and the AFL-CIO pushed hard for that language, and polls showed 86 percent of Americans supported it. Republicans and lobbyists for multinational corporations that wanted to spend U.S. tax money overseas opposed Buy American provisions.
Congress adopted weak, limited Buy American language. Now D.C. exports stimulus dollars to create jobs in foreign countries.

Republicans went all out attacking Buy America as “bad for America”. Republican presidential candidate John McCain went on CBS’s Face the Nation on February 8, 2009:

“I think it has policy changes in it which are fundamentally bad for America. For example, their ‘Buy America’ provision: that’s protectionism, and that did not work in any time in our history.”

As recently as October 2009, GOP Congressional leaders held an event to call for the rollback of Buy America provisions claiming that Buy America provisions were “costing American jobs.”

The truth is, as studies show, infrastructure investment can create by up to 33 percent more jobs when strong Buy America provisions are included.

It’s ironic that Republicans who make a point of using strong rhetoric against Islamo-fascist terrorists go mute as Wall Street economic terrorists attack our country’s manufacturing base by shipping jobs overseas.

Buy America provisions are supported by 86 percent of the American public who thinks American taxpayer money should go to create American jobs. Furthermore, as a recent Gallup/USA Today poll shows, Americans think the best way to create jobs is through protecting manufacturing from foreign threats.

Meanwhile, Steele issues another smoke-and-mirrors press release, hoping that voters won’t recognize that his conservative party is opposed to a policy that is essential to allowing American manufacturing to revive.

Scott N. Paul

By Scott N. Paul
Executive Director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing

Our nation faces rising unemployment, staggering debts, shrinking trade, and no sense of when (and if) a real recovery — one that reaches Main Street and working families — will take hold.

As the federal government responds to these concerns, and especially since President Obama was sworn in, shrill warnings against protectionist measures have been issued by editorial pages and foreign officials. The specter of widening and deepening the current recession, or returning to 1930s Smoot-Hawley trade policies, has been repeatedly invoked.

But American protectionism is a myth. If one wishes to point fingers, they should be directed toward Beijing, Tokyo, Brussels, and Seoul, where mercantilism and subsidies still reign supreme.

This is the untold story of protectionism: the barriers that other governments erect to block American goods and the mercantilist measures they utilize to gain market share in the U.S. These practices range from China’s currency misalignment and massive industrial subsidies to non-tariff barriers in Korea and Japan. All these impediments have been well documented by U.S. trade officials, but the mere act of identifying these practices is now viewed as protectionism, even though taking action to eliminate them would expand world trade, reduce global imbalances and preserve the free market.

The obsession with American protectionism is nothing more than a diversion from the real questions that need to be answered. How do we end global imbalances and achieve a balance between our exports and imports? How do we revitalize our nation’s manufacturing sector, which is responsible for a large share of America’s innovation and production? How do we begin growing jobs again in this difficult business environment?

Congress took a very small step forward in the stimulus package passed in February by requiring some materials used in infrastructure projects to be sourced domestically to the extent permitted by U.S. trade obligations. The value of the materials affected is only a small fraction of the $4 trillion in two-way trade that crosses the U.S. border annually, but it is providing a much-needed boost to the American manufacturing sector. Contrary to widely held perceptions, this Buy America rule is not a new requirement, nor does it make America a renegade nation.

Buy America has served as an effective jobs generator and a smart economic policy for decades. It applied to materials used in the construction of the interstate highway system in the 1950s. In the midst of a recession during the early 1980s, President Reagan signed legislation that strengthened Buy America requirements. Some sort of domestic sourcing requirement has applied to most major infrastructure expenditures passed by Congress since World War II, so it would have been a surprise if a requirement had not been attached to the stimulus spending.

And Buy America can create good jobs. A study prepared earlier this year by economists at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst estimates that strong domestic sourcing requirements create about one-third more manufacturing jobs than otherwise would be the case.

In fact, Buy America won’t just help the United States. For example, because of integration, the provision works to the benefit of the entire North American steel and auto industry, including in Canada.

Buy America policies also reward other nations with reciprocal government procurement agreements by exempting them from certain types of restrictions. Current procurement rules allow states and some localities to opt out of reciprocal obligations, leaving decision-making in the hands of local officials, who know far better than bureaucrats in Geneva or Washington what is best for their local economies.

There will never be a repeat of the Smoot-Hawley tariffs, at least not in America. We have not asked for sky-high tariffs. We have not asked for domestic procurement measures that violate our trade obligations. But we will continue to insist that countries like China honor the commitments they made to gain access to our market and stop their cheating, and we will work with Congress to ensure that tax dollars devoted to infrastructure spending are reinvested in the American economy.

The success of American manufacturing depends on a fair application of international trade rules. Buy America is fully consistent. But the market-distorting practices emanating from places like China are not. Let’s stop protectionism where it really festers.

QUESTION: Polls show strong support for “Buy American” legislation – which requires that government entities using tax-dollar supported stimulus grants buy domestically-produced products such as steel whenever possible. From your conversations with friends and neighbors, do you think most people really understand why it is so crucial to the American economy right now?

Yes we can Buy American

We think that Americans are currently far more aware of the values of stimulus and buying American products than they have been permitted to be for the past several years.  Because of the trust level in the current administration, driven by continuing efforts by the president to communicate with us, people are willing to make choices in line with what is best for our economy.  Hopefully, this trust we have will extend to believing in Obama’s efforts on behalf of unions too.
Jay and Lucia Weinroth
Big Prairie, Ohio

Little thought of Buy American

We are already very strongly “buying American,” but my sense is that most people have not really thought about it very much.  Local car dealerships are doing strong advertising along these lines, however, so that may pay off.
Bill Prentiss
Orlando, Fla.

Tariff now

In this day of global economy, global stimulus plans, and Uni Global Union, we must, finally, admit Americans are in a GLOBAL COMPETITION for jobs, standard of living and national economic standing. The surrender policy this nation’s corporations and politicians have given this great nation in condemning it to a service economy is a travesty. All great economic powers are based on their MANUFACTURING ability. Due to other nations taking advantage of our corporate policies of off-shoring, union busting and desperate allegiance to higher profit margins, we are in position to become a second tier economy. While other nations devalue their currency, pirate American technology, and use all protectionist measures available to them, our leaders continue to see the global economy as first priority over American security. If no one HERE has a job manufacturing American goods at a livable wage, how do they expect us to be able to

BUY anything other than Wal-Mart Chinese goods on the Chinese wages we’re receiving? I say don’t blame the Unions. Blame political and corporate greed. Give us a level playing field: tariff now.
John Buck
Point Pleasant Borough, N.J.

More Buy American education

People seem to understand the sentiment of buying American made goods, but they fall short in the practice.  I even know of a New York affiliate that distributed Chinese made “union logo” jackets at their December holiday meeting.  “If we bought American we couldn’t distribute them for free to our members,” I was informed by that local’s President.  He seemed only slightly embarrassed as he said this.

Sad, but true.  More ”Buy American” education is necessary.
Kevin Sexton
Flushing, N.Y.

Buy American and protectionism

I’ve been a union man since before I was born (my grandfather was a baker, my grandmother a seamstress, I’m a professor) and I strongly support almost every union initiative and position: except pushing for protectionist, “Buy American” legislation. Protectionism can lead to an uncontrollable retaliatory spiral that will ruin the world’s and America’s economy for years to come. “Buy American” is the wrong approach to a real problem: unfair competition, cheap wages and poor conditions in foreign countries.

The right solution includes:

1) enactment of single-payer national health so that we get guaranteed health and so that American business won’t be saddled with a competitive barrier compared to foreign companies that do not have to pay health care benefits;

2) a militant campaign against environmental and labor standards violations in other countries (not boycotts, but demonstrations at embassies, visits to the countries involved);

3) strong ties with and funding support for unionists in other countries — even symbolic short, large-scale sympathy strikes;

4) leverage our political strength to ensure that NAFTA, WTO etc. really get modified to promote better labor conditions world wide;

5) aggressive unionization here in America of all the industries that they CANNOT ship overseas, and aggressive struggles to raise the wages in those industries and sectors: food service workers, hospital workers, sanitation workers, doormen and janitors, transit workers, etc.;

6) repeal all right-to-work laws, the NYS Taylor Law penalties, etc. here and worldwide.
David Arnow
Brooklyn, N.Y.

Build America

The case has not been made strongly enough yet.  The Obama Administration could help make direct links between people’s basic concerns about the current state of the economy and job loss to a brighter future for every American family based on development of green industry and business built by Americans.    Unfortunately,  most people I know perceive “Buy American”  as strictly a ‘union’ issue which they don’t particularly identify with personally, and don’t understand what is good for unions is good for them.  I would like to see the issue framed as “Build America” instead of “Buy American” so that people might come to understand its importance to every American and to the global economy.   People painfully understand the economy needs to be rebuilt, and are being told to save not buy at this time.   The word “Build” instead of “Buy” better describes immediate needs.

After the last eight years of national trauma, people are skittish about ‘patriotism’ and the “Buy American” slogan may be off-putting.  So, yes, “Build America” first could lead us into a future of “Buy American.”  Also, the case for “Build America” and “Buy American” must be made by leaders outside the trade union movement as well as by our own Blue-Green Alliance.  It’s time for coalition building again.
Beth Omansky
Portland, Ore.

American imbalance

I suspect that most people do not understand that our balance of trade is so far out of balance; they may have heard that China holds around a trillion dollars of our debt, but they do not realize how much more the USA has bought from Chine than it has sold to China.  To a lesser degree, we are out of balance to Europe, Japan, and Korea. If we slow our purchasing of foreign goods, perhaps the balance will tilt back toward a more normal position.
David G. Wagner, MD
Portland, Ore.

American-made frustration

My friends feel very strongly about “Buy American,” but are frustrated because it is not easy to find American-made goods.  I would not know where to go to find American-made shoes or clothing.  Furniture and appliance stores have American, Canadian, and Asian items side by side and it is difficult to know which is which. Food and paper goods are often not labeled.  American-owned car companies purchase parts abroad, and ”foreign” ones purchase U.S. parts.
Judy Ferro
Caldwell, Idaho

Corporations selling out America

The tax structure must be changed. Freightliner closed American plants and went to Mexico. Hershey Chocolates moved to Mexico.  We have to keep the work in USA
Franz  Ortloff
Helena, Mont.

Circumventing Buy American

I think most people are not aware of the importance of Buy American and do not realize foreign countries exploit their workers. I myself think that to import to the extent that our own country has almost no domestic production of items like washers, dryers or structural steel is wrong. Some government contracts require Buy American in their subsidies for say, rail coaches, and they get around this requirement by assembling a small final component in the U.S.
Martin LaCarbonara
Woburn, Mass.

Consumers’ ignorance; manufacturers’ greed

For too long American consumers have made their purchases based on price and neither quality nor country of origin. This, coupled with the greed exhibited by manufactures and our nation’s trade policies has led to the demise of millions of good family wage jobs in the USA.

However, when the question is posed, should taxpayers dollars, meant for job creation, be spent overseas, I think that a vast majority of citizens would answer, “Of course not.”  I also believe that the recovery of our nation’s economy cannot be achieved to a great degree until we return to a nation that manufactures the goods we purchase and not a nation whose economy is based on services.
Harold Abbe
Camas, Wash.

Build American manufacturing

Instead of just passing out free money to the incompetent financial wizards at inept and possibility criminal Wall Street organizations, maybe the U.S. government should build manufacturing plants to make consumer products like refrigerators, washing machines, clothing, TV’s, and eventually all of the consumer goods that we import with that money.  We should impose import taxes high enough on these products so that US-made products are competitive in price with imported goods.  These plants should periodically and/or constantly be for sale based upon competitive bidding, but at a minimum price at least equal to as much as the government investment.  The money passed out to the financial industries does nothing to create jobs or eliminate the problems with the US economy.  Maybe it helps pay for the commissions of the U.S. salesmen of the expensive new French-manufactured private jet airplanes.  The French people making these (Falcon 20-25) airplanes are probably very thankful for Obama’s generosity.
Gerald R. Spencer, P.E.
Houston, Texas 

More solutions

Given that we are thoroughly enmeshed in World Trade, an attempt at nationalism would probably be counter productive.  Other countries would retaliate.

Instead, I should like to suggest the following changes:

1.  Re-write our trade policies to correct the off-set balance of payments.

2.  Make importers legally responsible for the safety of their products.

3.  Reward businesses that create jobs for U.S. workers.

4. Give tax relief for small businesses.
Suzanne Orr
Port Angeles, Wash.

Think past price

I don’t think most Americans think past the price. I admit I personally succumb to the temptation to pay less for imports manufactured with slave labor, although if there’s an American made product for not too much more, I will buy it.

I do make an effort to buy locally-grown food and wood products, as farming and lumber products support my neighbors. Companies like ADM and Cargill need their feet held to the fire with heavy tariffs or outright bans on importation of slave products.

Hopefully, the Obama administration will implement fair-trade mandates on imports, which will make U.S.-made products price-competitive and return our jobs.

Live long and perspire,

Jerry (Steve) Dodge
Springdale, Wash.