A panel of industrial and defense experts warned today that the steep decline in America’s manufacturing base has dire consequences for the nation’s ability to provide good jobs and defend itself. Noting that because the defense industry and the manufacturing sector are tied together, whole civilian industries are linked with defense manufacturing, said Dr. Joel Yudken, author of Manufacturing Insecurity: America’s Manufacturing Crisis and the Erosion of the U.S. Defense Industrial Base.
Updates
04/14/11
04/13/11
Free Trade Agreement unlikely to increase sales of U.S. cars in South Korea
By Truman Lewis, ConsumerAffairs.com
A newly released study by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) warns that the already hard-hit U.S. auto industry is in for more pain if a new trade agreement is approved by Congress.
04/12/11
The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call recently reported that the government of South Korea is paying Washington-based lobbying and public relations firms to push Congress to pass the pending Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA).
04/11/11
Ian Fletcher, San Francisco Chronicle
One thing is for certain already: global trade as we know it will not be here in 10 years. It may even be gone in five. The unsustainable U.S. trade deficit alone assures this.
04/11/11
Michael Whitney, Firedog Lake
SEIU came out against the Colombia “free trade” agreement today, slamming the deal as a product negotiated by George W. Bush with an “action plan” that does nothing to actually reduce the number of assassinations of union members in the country.
04/11/11
The Columbus Dispatch
Sen. Sherrod Brown, a longtime critic of trade pacts such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, last week assailed the new agreement between the Obama administration and Colombia, charging that "it merely represents another example of Washington being out-of-touch with concerns and values of most Americans."
04/10/11
Roy Takumi, Honolulu Star Adviser
The pending U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement is not a good deal for Hawaii or the United States. As state legislatures across the country struggle to rebuild our economies after the global financial crisis, and balance state budgets, we urgently need forward-thinking policies that will create American jobs.
04/08/11
By Jim Goodman, Common Dreams
While the Boston Globe indicated NAFTA was bad for U.S. jobs and the environment, the San Francisco Chronicle noted that under NAFTA multinational corporations had been able to cut labor costs and increase their profits. KORUS will be no different: bad for workers, good for corporate profits. The U.S. International Trade Commission estimates that under KORUS, the U.S. trade deficit would, again, increase and U.S. jobs would, again, be lost.
04/08/11
By David Dayen, Firedog Lake
Labor unions are not happy with the “action plan” that is seen as a precursor to a free trade agreement with Colombia. Scores of labor organizers have been attacked and even killed in Colombia over the past several years. And the AFL-CIO and other unions simply find the deal insufficient.
04/07/11
Industry Week
Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) announced on April 6 that they have each introduced bills to require the development of a national manufacturing strategy in order to boost traditional and high-tech manufacturing, spur American job growth and strengthen the middle class. America has lost 5.5 million manufacturing jobs, or one-third of the total, over the last decade.
