From last night's Lou Dobb's reports:
SCHIAVONE: But with an estimated three-quarters-of-a-million American jobs lost to overseas manufacturers and outsourcing in general since 2001, labor and business groups are not as optimistic.
BOB BAUGH, AFL INDUSTRIAL UNIONS COUNCIL: You said financial services. General Electric has 22,000 employees in India. Their entire financial services are over there. All the computer companies and call-in centers are moving overseas.
JIM SCHOLLAERT, AMERICAN MANUFACTURING TRADE ACTION COALITION: Many of our large corporations are responsible for moving their factories to China and selling their goods back into the USA. Unfortunately, our Fortune 500 seemed to have adopted a new business model. It's pay Chinese wages and charge U.S. prices. And that's killing the country. It can't continue.
SCHIAVONE: For the first nine months of this year, the United States' goods deficit with China was $89.7 billion. The overall U.S. goods deficit, $396.5 billion.
(END VIDEOTAPE) SCHIAVONE: Lou, while some producers believe that China has a lot to answer for, others producers believe U.S. tax policy could give them a lift. And that, along with extending unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless, remains a task for next year's Congress -- Lou.
DOBBS: Which, if this keeps up, will be facing a number of tasks.
Louise Schiavone, thank you very much.
One manufacturing sector hit hard by the exportation of American jobs is the furniture industry. Over the past four years, almost 30 percent of American jobs in that industry have been shipped overseas. And like textile and television-makers, who successfully pressured the government to impose trade sanctions against Chinese competitors, furniture makers are now also asking for help.
Lisa Sylvester reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Furniture makers in North Carolina and Virginia have felt the pain of deep job cuts, getting the raw end of the deal on globalization; 27 manufacturers and five labor unions accuse the Chinese of illegal dumping, pricing the furniture well below production cost.
They have asked the Commerce Department and the U.S. International Trade Commission to impose duties averaging 250 percent on Chinese bedroom furniture.
JOHN BASSETT, VAUGHAN-BASSETT FURNITURE: About half of all imports of bedroom furniture now comes from China. When it comes to imports of bedroom furniture, China is the 800-pound gorilla. No other country comes close.
SYLVESTER: Imports from China of household wood furniture -- that includes bedroom furniture -- climbed from $1.67 billion in 2000 to over $3 billion last year, an 81 percent increase. At the same time, U.S. domestic production fell, from $12.12 billion to $10.67 billion.
JOSEPH DORN, ATTORNEY, AMERICAN FURNITURE MANUFACTURERS: Furniture brands, for example, which has been closing plants left and right, has told Wall Street that its future is in Asia, not the United States. Petitioners, however, do not want to become merchandisers for the Chinese. They want to preserve their U.S. assets. They want to maintain their U.S. jobs.
SYLVESTER: Not all U.S. furniture manufacturers support the proposed tariffs. Some of the largest U.S. furniture companies, those importing Chinese furniture, are fighting the petition, along with retailers that include the Bombay Company, Crate and Barrel, J.C. Penney, Rhodes Furniture, and Rooms To Go. Retailers say the tariffs will increase prices for consumers. ERIK AUTOR, NATIONAL RETAIL FEDERATION: They're going to be paying at least $1,500 and as much as $4,500 more for a suite of bedroom furniture if this case is successful.
SYLVESTER: But for those in North Carolina and Virginia, the extra savings on furniture is not worth the price of their job.
P.S. For all Americans, the few $s saved on any product is not worth loss of their job. |
