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A Looming Trade Lesson: Tariffs threaten the jobs that Standard Textile brought back to the U.S.
Wall Street Journal ^ | August 9, 2018

Posted on 08/10/2018 5:12:20 AM PDT by reaganaut1

America lost more than three-fourths of its textile-mill jobs between 1991 and 2016. “One of my main objectives was to bring those opportunities back,” says Gary Heiman, president and CEO of Cincinnati-based Standard Textile. Mr. Heiman has succeeded, creating around 400 jobs in two Southern towns, but now the Trump tariffs are threatening to drive those jobs back overseas. That’s the opposite of what Mr. Trump claims is happening due to his tariffs.

Standard Textile specializes in making sheets, towels and other reusable fabric products for hospitals and hotels. Since 2002 the company has invested some $66 million in American manufacturing facilities and equipment in Union, S.C., and Thomaston, Ga.

Workers don’t need a college degree, and Standard Textile provides on-the-job training for anyone who shows the right attitude and aptitude to work. Employees earn an average of $44,000 a year in salary and benefits—well above the median household income of $35,000 in Union and $27,500 in Thomaston.

A raw fabric known as greige is Standard Textile’s main input, and the company buys about $30 million worth from China each year. Workers at the Union facility scour, bleach, dye and finish the cotton material, sending rolls of the fabric to Thomaston for cutting, sewing and packaging. But in July the Trump Administration proposed raising tariffs by 10% on $200 billion of Chinese goods—greige included. On Aug. 1 President Trump directed the U.S. Trade Representative to lift the tariff to 25%.

That increase would put Standard Textile at a major disadvantage against foreign competition. The company paid $2.9 million in duties for greige last year, and this would add up to $7.5 million more to its manufacturing costs. Finished textiles made by Chinese workers would continue to face the old tariff of 6.7%.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: freetraitor; nevertumper; nwo; oneworlder; tariffs
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To: NorthMountain
Seriously, I have no idea ... but that's what I would like to see happen.

Not a question of time so much as money, and who will spend millions building a factory to produce a low margin product whose profitability is based solely on a tariff that can be repealed on a whim?

41 posted on 08/10/2018 7:26:17 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: reaganaut1

Bullwhoof....mercantilism plays to America’s strength as we remain (at least for now)leaders in tech, aviation, capital formation, industrial processes, natural resources....account for 25% to 30% of the world economy.

Only in exploited semi-slave/slave labor do we significantly trail anyone.

Free trade, like feminism, is what the globalists have programmed/conditioned even the educated to rote respond.

As a bizguy with a Fortune 500 & 1000 C level leadership career (finance and ops side), I pretended my EVP of Purchasing just came to me with his Chamber of Commerce lapel pin glinting and breathlessly gasped Trump’s insanity had crushed our supply of greige and we were doomed.....in his/her/its presence, I googled griege suppliers....https://panjiva.com/Manufacturers-Of/greige+rolls

Top results as I suspected...India, Pakistan, Viet Nam, Indonesia....a very long list.

I then fired the EVP on the spot and slacked his/her/its assistant the google link and told him/her/it to beat the previous price by 10% and his new salary would be 20% higher than the old buyer....come see me at COB with the solution.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I miss it sometimes...but I don’t....can’t deal with the his/her/its culture so I cashed out.

China, Germany, and South Korea all built their Top 10 world INDUSTRIAL economies using tariffs at American expense. Japan has done it twice. All, except Red China sheltered under our historical 4% to 6% of GDP defense shield......after spending trillions in today’s dollars to save the world from Germany, Japan, Red Russia and now Red China....

About time we take off the gloves and carve out a bigger piece of the world pig.


42 posted on 08/10/2018 7:52:11 AM PDT by Lowell1775
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To: DoodleDawg

Just as one simple example, soybeans are cheaper for American soybean processors.


43 posted on 08/10/2018 8:18:44 AM PDT by palmer (...if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive)
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To: Alberta's Child

We create our own raw materials and will create more if the market signals that it is worth doing.


44 posted on 08/10/2018 8:20:33 AM PDT by palmer (...if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive)
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To: palmer

Aluminum is made from bauxite ore. How much of that do we have here in the U.S.? Hint: Almost none.


45 posted on 08/10/2018 8:25:59 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("The Russians escaped while we weren't watching them ... like Russians will.")
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To: Alberta's Child

What is our tariff on bauxite ore?


46 posted on 08/10/2018 8:26:50 AM PDT by palmer (...if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive)
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To: palmer

Probably zero.


47 posted on 08/10/2018 8:48:26 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("The Russians escaped while we weren't watching them ... like Russians will.")
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To: Pelham
You’re not supposed to notice that. Just trust the WSJ and its toadies.

Isn't it something how the toadies and Think Tank conservatives never engage in conversation? Honestly, they have nothing.

48 posted on 08/10/2018 9:24:39 AM PDT by JonPreston
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To: palmer
Just as one simple example, soybeans are cheaper for American soybean processors.

And soybean producers are seeing their profits dwindle to nothing, if not racking up an actual loss.

49 posted on 08/10/2018 9:26:57 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: Blood of Tyrants
People will pay a few bucks more over Chinese crap.

In what universe?

We've had three decades of history that prove this notion wrong.

50 posted on 08/10/2018 9:30:35 AM PDT by semimojo
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To: Moonman62
So the lesson here is to raise the tariff on on finished textiles.

Hell yeah!

Tax me every on every shirt I buy so I can subsidize an uncompetitive industry.

51 posted on 08/10/2018 9:34:16 AM PDT by semimojo
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To: DoodleDawg

Always looking for the downside, eh? Do you think farmers can switch to other crops next season? How about the Euros agreeing to buy up soybeans, is that worth mentioning?


52 posted on 08/10/2018 10:10:51 AM PDT by palmer (...if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive)
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To: palmer
Do you think farmers can switch to other crops next season?

Don't know a whole lot about farming, do you?

How about the Euros agreeing to buy up soybeans, is that worth mentioning?

The problem with that is that unless the EU officials are going to personally buy hundreds of thousands of tons of soybeans then their promise is worthless. They can say that they'll promote the import of soybeans, they can say that there won't be any tariff on U.S. supplies, but they can't force corporations to import them or consumers to buy them. Now can they?

53 posted on 08/10/2018 10:21:15 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: DoodleDawg
I've been in and around textiles in varying capacities since the 90’s so you might want to spare the faux knowledgablility there, Doodle.

There's a name for it. Vertical integration. Look it up. This was once the norm in textiles.

54 posted on 08/10/2018 10:23:41 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: DoodleDawg

Most soybean farmers switched from corn. But perhaps you can share some of your farming genius with us.


55 posted on 08/10/2018 11:04:48 AM PDT by palmer (...if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive)
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To: palmer
Most soybean farmers switched from corn

Did they now? Then what are they complaining about? Like you said, you being a farming genius and all, they can just switch back. How hard can it be?

56 posted on 08/10/2018 11:53:12 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: DoodleDawg

They are complaining because they have soybeans in the ground this season.


57 posted on 08/10/2018 2:11:26 PM PDT by palmer (...if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive)
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To: reaganaut1

Free traitors have cost more US jobs than 100% tariffs on everything would.


58 posted on 08/10/2018 8:03:05 PM PDT by jospehm20
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