A Summit Without High Points @ By Robert E. Swift (NAPSA)—The Summit of the Americas held in Quebec in April Trade Agreement, enacted in sphere together to discuss a new trading arrangement which by even greater. The typical manufacturing facility in Mexico is an environ- brought 34 countries of this hemi2005 would provide these nations favorable status similar to what is currently offered to Mexico and Canada through the North American Free Trade Agreement. Several thousand protesters showed up and were treated to tear gas and fire hose bathsfor their trouble. This wascertainly not a repeat of the World Trade Organization meeting that placed Seattle in the center of a firestorm of civil protest, but emotions ran just as high among those who demonstrated. The reasons for all this discontent varied, but the theme remained a bond among the demonstrators: Big government in the United States is not protecting the interests of the little guy or of our country in general. At some point in the not-toodistant future several trade agreements will change the way we compete, and as a consequence the make-up of our economy will surrender to change that will not necessarily benefit us long term. Globalism is having an impact on our economic lives in ways we could only imagine. The vast majority of products and industries under trade discussion come, of course, from the manufacturing sector. Intellectual capital and services, whether legal, advertising or serving meals, are really not what all this is about. It’s about things we make and sell. Andsince globalism engendered a series of agreements, manypoliti- cally motivated, designed to ease the trade environment, U.S. man- ufacturing has been losing steam as a viable enterprise that creates products and excellent middleincomejobs for Americans. As additional nations are granted special trading privileges with us, eliminating many regulations and doing away withtariffs, the competition for our jobs will intensify. And we are at a disad- vantage. While the Administration tied trade progress to democ- ratic ideals and environmental improvements among our hemisphere neighbors, as a practical matter this will be difficult if not impossible to enforce. For example, the North American Free 1994, provides Mexico with a trading status akin to one of our states. But their freedoms are mental disaster, spewing effluent into waterways and the air at rates totally unacceptable here in the U.S. To fix this condition would cost billions, and partially negate Mexico’s current cost advantage over domestic manufacturers that have paid for environmentally compliant equipment and built this cost into their price of doing business. Companies that operate in any one of our states must meet standards at the state and federal level. Mexico resists this. And then there is laborcost. Our industries must abide by minimum wage laws. These were set to ensure our workers are compensated fairly, and that no employer can legally take advan- tage of a worker’s plight and underpay him or her. But most of the countries around the meeting table in Quebec do not enforce this type of wage protection. The grinding poverty found in much of Mexico, the Caribbean and South America are turned to advantage when cheap labor becomes a magnet to American industry. Until these circumstances are remedied, many thousands of our jobs are on theline. The textile and apparel industry, which is particularly vulnerable, will lose forever, literally thousands of jobs this month, just as last month, and years of such monthsprior. If the past is prologue, in the short week of the Quebec meeting’s duration, a couple of thousand of these U.S. workers were told to pack up and leave their companies’ employ. In that same timeframe, a like number of jobs started up in the Third World, replacing us in the manufacturing cycle. The Crafted With Pride In U.S.A. Council urges that, in the interest of preserving Ameri- can jobs, we look for the Made in U.S.A. label on products. Until such time as the global trading field is level, it’s the least we can do. Robert E. Swift is executivve director of the Crafted with Pride in U.S.A.Council, headquartered in New York City.
