What were they thinking? We live in a global marketplace. As such not only do we export goods but we are also a major importer of products. So the brainstorm of trying to mandate using only US manufactured steel materials in the recovery plan was simply poorly thought out.
As a former IEEE Working Group Chairman I led an international contingent of engineering and marketing directors representing the USA on International Standards relating to EC 92 which obviously was a few years ago. At that time we were aware of the protectionism that existed in foreign countries against US products such as France when we tried to compete for their business. Almost 50% of DEC sales were to European clients. We were forced to open manufacturing plants on the mainland with a fixed percentage of the labor content coming from those nations in order to do business.
I read on Drudge that president Obama is now backing down to avoid a trade war with the EU.
We should never have considered such an ill conceived procurement policy. Sadly, that is what you get when you have an inexperienced leader on the tiller of state.
Note: The Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers, IEEE, is the worlds largest technical society with over 375,000 members in 160 countries
Sadly, your post doesn’t even mention the staggering trade deficit this country has acquired in this “global marketplace”. Are you completely unaware of the concept of balance? Frankly, in these economic times, I wouldn’t mind seeing the pendulum swing back the other way a bit.
Besides, the proposal merely requires infrastructure projects initiated by the stimulus to use American-manufactured goods. That hardly constitutes any sort of wholesale repudiation of the importance of the “global marketplace”.
anon.
If that be the case why is he back pedalling?
Anon. International trade is a complex topic. Check out the WTO and the Doha Round negotiation audio clip which I have provided below. I mus tadmit that I did not listen to the entire presentations and proivde it simply as an info source.
http://www.wto.org/english/forums_e/debates_e/debate11_e.htm
Every college grad who’s taken an econ class knows the economic advantages of global trade and division of labor, but it’s based on a big happy global family without consideration of serious global political discord. Manufacturing experience drives design creativity, which in turn drives job creation. The continuing loss of American manufacturing to countries with the cost advantage of an oppressed and impoverished workforce, such as China and India, will in time render us too dependent and vulnerable to oppose political intimidation from them. Yeah, you’re short-term profits are higher open global economy and corporate leaders don’t want to give this up; they’ll be dead and gone before we have to pay the bill for their greed.
I’m a teacher, committed to our youth and to the long-term strength the nation we leave them. A country that has lost the means to manufacture its own goods, or has allowed the quality of life of its workforce to decline to the world’s average, is not the one I want to leave my students.
Larry,
If international trade is such a complex issue, why give it such a simplistic rendering?
As to what you characterize as “backpedaling”, have you ever heard of political negotiation? Give a little, take a little. That’s exactly what’s happening with the Senate version of the stimulus.
Larry, unfortunately, the US section of the IEEE, the IEEE USA, has long ago adopted a rather isolationist and xenophobic stance, by massively lobbying against the H1-B visa.
That was a major reason for me to not renew my IEEE membership a couple years back, after being a member for nearly 2 decades.
It is a shame that the US section of the IEEE undermines the international good reputation of the IEEE.