Posted on 05/12/2008 7:51:10 AM PDT by indcons
As immigrants, we're proud of America and the strength it derives from being uniquely open to trade, to investment, and to ideas and people. Recently, prominent voices in punditry and politics have questioned the benefits of America's openness and called for an isolationist U-turn that would choke off our innovation and prosperity.
In every state of the union, such a retreat would be disastrous for jobs, economic growth and consumer choice. Nowhere is this more clear than here in Torrance, Calif., where today we are visiting a Hitachi plant that remanufactures auto parts. This "foreign" company employs 16,000 Americans -- 8,000 in California alone -- and is just one of hundreds of overseas firms that invest directly in the U.S. From where we're standing, what America needs is more openness here and abroad -- not less.
"But what about American manufacturing?" one might ask. "What about American exports?" Even at a time when our economy has slowed, U.S. exports are booming. In 2007, we saw a record $1.6 trillion in exports, up 12.6% from the prior year. And exports are growing even faster in 2008. In the first quarter of this year, export growth is up nearly 18% from the same period last year. Nearly a third of all U.S. agricultural products and more than 20% of the goods we manufacture were exported last year. Indeed, exports have been a kind of silent stimulus over the past year, helping even a slowing economy stay in the black.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
It would be an excellent article IF every time the authors mentioned immigration you knew they meant “legal immigration”.
Free trade is good and ought to be understood as a foundational conservative principal.
Its sad that so many freepers go along with the Union and Dobbs crowd on stuff like this.
These huge trade deficits are flooding the world with excess dollars.
What! You thought our suppliers were going to paper their walls with them?
Hello ten dollar gasoline.
However, supporting communist regimes with Trade not a good idea. So yeah, I like Dobbs view on Trade.
1980’s Communism Evil empire, 2000’s Communism Good for Business.
Agreed....the last paragraph was revealing.
Except the Arabs who boycott trade over things like cartoons and maniacs like il’ Kim in N Korea, I think most others would agree that trade is good.
The question though is - should there be any restrictions on trade for protectionist/populist reasons or should such opposition be guided by our individual ideologies/interests?
I am not in favor of unfettered “free” trade (ChiComs), btw. However, I am also scared when it comes to Dobbs’ unionist/protectionist rhetoric.
Mr. Gutierrez is U.S. secretary of commerce. Mr. Schwarzenegger is governor of California.
There is the whole agenda, wrapped up in the last sentence.
Yet, we don't with Iran. And try to flood their market with our American culture and freedom. Weird.
Great points
IMO, friendlier nations should be favored more, and trade should be fair. Our first President was a proponent of fair trade with friendly nations.
Also BTW, Governor Schwarzenegger has been working against Canadian oil on false environmentalist grounds. He and his political friends have been trying to shut the oil sands production down in favor of other overseas interests.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.