Posted on 12/19/2010 6:38:36 PM PST by 1rudeboy
The country's largest manufacturer of sleeping bags says new competition from Bangladesh could force it out of business if the U.S. does not level the playing field.
Exxel Outdoors Inc., which employs nearly 70 workers in its Alabama factory and makes about 2 million sleeping bags per year, has been pressing the Obama administration to lift an exemption that lets Bangladesh import sleeping bags into the country without paying a 9 percent tariff.
"You can't leave an American manufacturer at a competitive disadvantage with a foreign worker," Harry Kazazian, chief executive of the company, told FoxNews.com.
But that's apparently what the Obama administration has done, turning down the company's request in an initial ruling and forcing Exxel to submit another request.
The office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which is reviewing Exxel's request, told FoxNews.com that its review will conclude in the spring and that President Obama would have to sign off on any changes to the list of duty-free products – changes that would go into effect before July 1.
"We take Exxel's concerns seriously," the office said in a statement.
Exxel is also seeking help from Congress.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., has tried to slap a tariff on Bangladesh sleeping bags but he has been unable to sway his fellow lawmakers to change the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences, or GSP, which determines which products third-world countries can import duty free.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
A subset of the above.
Actually, I overstated the pay in Bangladesh for many garment workers.
“Unskilled workers in the garment sector are worse off still, receiving just BDT800 (US$11.5) a month and often forced to toil for 14-16 hours a day.”
Same link as #25. Yep, people should be really proud to come here and excuse a system of trade that results in workers being paid $11.50 per month, and who knows how many hours they are required to work.
In the meantime, 70 workers might soon be without jobs and on government assistance just so Americans can buy sleeping bags for maybe $10 less.
I might feel a little differently if we had a robust economy where these 70 individuals might be able to find comparable positions elsewhere but, the reality is, we don’t.
Don’t see it, unless the Bangladeshi lobby is much more powerful in Congress than I can imagine.
I can’t think of any economist that would argue that it’s desirable to produce everything we use within our own country. Maybe it’s better to make sleeping bags elsewhere.
In any event, my guess is that the cost of materials, not labor, is the determining factor. Supports for cotton farmers and other corporate welfare add enormously to costs.
This is just a marketing problelm. Bangladesh has bed bugs, Alabama doesn’t; let it be known. You think a 9% margin matters vs bed bugs?
If you accept the article as written, it looks like Exxel thinks it can compete if the Bangladeshis pay the 9%. If that’s the case, it’s likely that Exxel can produce sleeping bags much more efficiently than others.
Actually, one would hope protectionists understood basic science.
That will pretty more be the "free" traders response to these article as the USA slips deeper and deeper into debt (while the fed prints more dollars in a vain attempt to keep the ship of state afloat).
Companies have often changed the focus of their business. Nokia, J.P. Morgan started out in commodities. Exxel oughta consider switching to the software business, come out with a spreadsheet program.
That's one of the big lies that the pretend free-traders have been telling for at least thirty years: that all the jobs any fool knows will be exported as a result of every new "free" trade agreement, that those jobs will be replaced by the new, high tech jobs of the future. All we have to do is retrain the displaced workers for the new jobs of the future.
But any fool also knows that those new jobs of the future can also be established in cheap labor nations rather than the US.
The main thing fifty years of pretend free trade policies has accomplished is to create tremendously one-sided trade relationships that have give foreign producers far greater access to US markets than US firms are allowed to the markets of trading partners.
Now we're really getting the payoff in high unemployment, high budget and trade deficits, and a ruinous accumulated national debt. The US now pays out about a trillion per year in support programs for the poor and low wage earners, per Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation.
What is it with protectionists, anyway? Our government spends what, $1.40 for every $1.00 it takes in? And NAFTA is the problem? That's like blaming soft drinks for obesity.
As impossible as it seems, you continue to reach new lows of inanity and irrelevancy in your non-answers.
That is equivalent of saying the GM Volt is a cost effective vehicle while disregarding the $9k government subsidy.
Lol, totally true, but the resident pretend free traders are either unable, or unwilling to find any connection whatsoever between the increased government spending on programs for the poor and low wage earners (which contribute to the US budget deficit), and the export and outsourcing of US jobs, and the trade deficit.
This is never a topic of discussion on news programs...unless i have missed it...until this issue is addressed..well, everything doesn’t really matter.
I was pretty much quoting you from a few years back, hope you like the USA you created, no money, no jobs and almost no hope. Enjoy.
Everyone should have a high-paying job, right? Just like everyone should have a house. How well did the government work that out for us?
In other words, you had nothing intelligent to say so you decided to make something up. How retarded.
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