News

October 24, 2008

‘Made in America’ forum sees China as competitor

Group touring Pa. focuses on U.S. trade deficit and loss of manufacturing during election year.

By Jerry Lynott jlynott@timesleader.com
Business Writer
Jerry Lynott on Facebook   |   @TLJerryLynott on Twitter

WILKES-BARRE -- To all the talk about the economy and jobs during the “Keep It Made in America” town hall meeting Thursday, Tom Lutsky added a bit of his own.

The United Steelworkers union member from Hazleton said he’s knows why those issues are on people’s minds. He’s been on highway construction projects where workers were laid off because there was no concrete available.

“It went to China for the week,” Lutsky said.

China figured prominently in the meeting sponsored by the Alliance for American Manufacturing. The non-partisan group from Washington, D.C. brought its road show to Genetti’s Hotel and Conference Center, one of several stops in Pennsylvania this week, to highlight the nation’s trade deficit and the loss of manufacturing jobs and to position those topics front and center in the upcoming election.

The United States is China’s largest customer of goods, said Scott Paul, executive director of the alliance. But China has grown as a manufacturing nation at the expense of the United States. In the steel industry alone, China provides $27 billion in energy subsidies to steel makers. “Our producers get nothing like that,” Paul said.

Paul moderated a panel discussion that focused on what the country has to do to make China play fairly and how American companies can compete.

Panel member Steve Yodoff, vice president of operations at InterMetro Industries Corp., a shelving and industrial cart maker in Wilkes-Barre, said America’s strengths are its skills and innovation. “If you can produce a better product then you can get those jobs back,” Yodoff said.

Northeastern Pennsylvania was included in the alliance’s tour because of the heavy manufacturing lost here, the fact that Pennsylvania is a swing state in the presidential election and there are several highly contested congressional races, said Paul.

Unlike the presidential debates in which none of the candidates was asked about China, jobs and trade, the meetings invite candidates in to address those issues and answer questions from the audience, Paul explained. “That’s our job. We are asking those questions tonight,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, offered a quick presentation before leaving for another event.

His Republican challenger, Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, told the mostly organized labor crowd of approximately 250 people that he would be in favor of reopening some trade agreements if he is elected to the seat in the 11th Congressional District.

“We need to have fair trade agreements and not so much free trade agreements,” Barletta said.

U.S. Rep. Chris Carney, D-Dimock Township, told the audience he authored the Made in America tax cut that would give tax benefits to companies that keep manufacturing jobs in the country.

The loss of millions of manufacturing jobs to countries where labor is cheaper and environmental and labor standards are lower than America’s is an issue of national security, he added.

When America loses the ability to make products, Carney said, “We will be little better than a banana republic and the fact is we can’t grow bananas.”

His challenger for the seat in the 10th Congressional District, Chris Hackett, declined the invitation to attended, Paul said.

Unopposed in his race for state representative, incumbent Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre, joked he could say whatever he wanted.

Turning serious, he advocated requiring every piece of equipment used by our military to be made in the country. He also blamed the current economic crisis on “greed.”

Pashinski offered to do his part to keep jobs in the country, saying, “I as an American would prefer to pay more for an American product made by an American” than to buy a cheaper product made somewhere else.

Tweet	Follow @TLnews