11-05-2003, 10:00 AM
|
#7 (permalink)
|
|
Apocalypse Nerd
|
Sure, labor in China is cheap. Indiana Republican Dan Burton told a House of Representatives panel that there are "10 million people in slave labor camps" in China. I guess I take issue with that. Imagine my American flag (which was the only weatherproof one I could find) made in China by slave labor... it's sickening.
Here is a relevant article which should interest some
Quote:
US lawmakers press for tougher action on China trade
Posted: 22 October 2003
WASHINGTON, : US lawmakers pressed President George W. Bush's administration Tuesday to use stiffer measures, including possible import tariffs, to close a widening trade gap with China.
The trade deficit with China expanded to a monthly of record 11.7 billion dollars in August. Last year, the shortfall with China grew to a staggering 103 billion dollars, nearly a quarter of the total US deficit.
"It is intolerable that we would have a trade deficit of the magnitude that we have with China," Indiana Republican Dan Burton told a House of Representatives panel.
"I realize that there are risks in putting the hammer to the Chinese but something has to be done," Burton told the House of Representatives commitee on international relations.
"It has to be done and has to be done relatively quickly otherwise we are going to suffer the consequences," he warned.
"One of the emerging huge powers in this world is China and if we are not careful we are going to be ending up subservient to them in 20 or 25 years because we are not dealing with these problems as we should right now."
It was "extremely important" for Washington to start using a sterner hand in dealing with Beijing, he said.
"If it involves import tariffs on some of their products to send a message then, by golly, we ought to consider that."
China's unfair labor practices also should be addressed, he said.
"When we talk about fair trade we are talking about making sure that the labor (cost) in places like China is not artificially held to such a level that we cannot compete," Burton said.
"In addition to that, they still have 10 million people in slave labor camps that are getting virtually nothing and are making products that we are buying here in America."
Tom Lantos, a California Democrat, said the administration's efforts so far were "dramatically insufficient."
"Given the devastating impact of the yawning Chinese trade deficit on our work force, the administration must develop a much more effective and forceful trade strategy vis a vis China," he said.
Grant Aldonas, Under Secretary of Commerce for the International Trade Administration, said the agreement bringing China into the World Trade Organization (WTO) had been a success "at least on paper" by knocking down barriers to entering the Chinese market.
But "we now need to actual enforcement of the laws and enforcement of the rules in other areas," he said.
China was cushioning its industry from market pressures, creating friction with its trading partners, Aldonas said.
He called for an office to be set up within the US Commerce Department to search for practices that provide such unfair support instead of waiting for US industry to complain.
"We in the Commerce Department should be acting on a proactive basis, identifying the problems and sorting these things out with our trading partners, and only if we fail at that should we have to resort to something like imposing prohibitive tariffs on commodities coming into the United States," Aldonas said.
Committee chairman Henry Hyde, an Illinois Republican, said China's currency, the yuan, was believed to be undervalued by between 15 and 40 percent, unfairly tipping trade in its favor and contributing to the US deficit.
Washington and Beijing "must develop a plan to ensure that market forces more fully dictate the relative value of our currencies," he said.
China should take immediate steps to meet its WTO commitments, Hyde told the panel.
"Failure to implement its commitments could not only jeapordize our bilateral relationship but could also affect our future support for the global trading body as a whole," he warned.
- AFP
|
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori.../53500/1/.html
Sorry if this quote is so long... with all the talk about context being important -I thought the whole article would better than just a little snipet |
|
|