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Posted on 10/12/2003 5:26:06 AM PDT by FreedomPoster
Schumer wants U.S. to level China playing field October 10, 2003By Michelle Breidenbach
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer on Thursday brought his fight against unfair Chinese trade practices back to the Syracuse region, where he was inspired this summer to do something about the loss of manufacturing jobs. At a meeting in August, local business and labor leaders asked for Schumer's help.
Weeks later, he joined a bipartisan group of senators in Washington to propose a 27.5 percent tariff on Chinese imports. That's the average amount he says China undervalues its currency. Schumer spoke about the proposal outside the Crucible Specialty Metals factory in Geddes Thursday - three days after Carrier Corp. said it would move 1,200 manufacturing jobs from DeWitt to Singapore and Georgia. The layoffs are expected to start as early as January. Carrier's plant shipped about 80 percent of the refrigeration units it makes for shipping containers to Asia. Workers there put the units on containers made in China. Carrier will now make the refrigeration units in a sister plant in Singapore and send its compressor work to China and to a plant in Georgia, Schumer said. Schumer said the undervaluation of the yuan has played a role in the loss of 2.6 million manufacturing jobs in the United States since March 2001. He said more than 8,000 of those jobs were in Central New York. He said the practice of manipulating currency to gain a competitive advantage violates the World Trade Organization and International Monetary Fund agreements, of which China is a party. "China's emergence as a manufacturing powerhouse at the expense of the United States raises significant economic security concerns and the question of whether a country that loses its ability to produce tangible products will long remain an economic power," Schumer said. Schumer said he has bipartisan support for his proposal, but he does not know whether he has the support of President George W. Bush. Bush heads to Asia next week, in part to thank world leaders for backing the United States in Iraq. An Associated Press report said that message could be clouded by job losses to Asia. Treasury Secretary John Snow, who was in Beijing in early September, urged the Chinese to stop rigidly controlling its currency rate. Administration officials say the president might make a similar appeal when he meets with Chinese leaders, The Associated Press reported. "I'm a free trader, but I'm also a fair trader. And I believe our manufacturing sector, for example, must be treated fairly in foreign markets," Bush said during a Cabinet meeting this week. Schumer is the latest in a parade of politicians to speak in the Syracuse region this week about the loss of jobs at Carrier. Sen. Hillary Clinton came Wednesday to meet with members of Local 527 of the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, which represents Carrier's hourly production workers. Rep. James Walsh, R-Onondaga, said Monday that he would scrutinize all of Carrier's government contracts and do everything in his power to give them to companies that have America's best interests at heart. Schumer, Clinton, Walsh and Gov. George Pataki met with officials from Carrier's parent company, United Technologies Corp. All were powerless to save manufacturing jobs at Carrier's DeWitt plant. Schumer said UTC leaders were uncaring about the people on the assembly line in DeWitt. Schumer's aides said he held the news conference at Crucible because Carrier would not allow him to hold it there. Schumer's legislation has five other sponsors: Democratic Sens. Evan Bayh, of Indiana, and Richard Durbin, of Illinois, and Republican Sens. Elizabeth Dole, of North Carolina, Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, and Jim Bunning, of Kentucky.
At Crucible, N.Y. senator pushes proposed 27.5% tariff on Chinese imports.
Staff writer
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New York long long ago lost massive jobs to other US states because of Unions, tax policy and socialists like Schumer. What's scary is that some voters want the government to force some kind of New York style government jobs program down the taxpayers throats.
North Carolina is already full of New Yorkers that long ago voted for Schumer, HR Clinton and other obese bureaucrats with their feet.
The economy is improving gradually, are you?
On this subject, Senator Schumer and I are in total agreement.
Free trade makes us, and everyone better off. We can't have free trade now because of India, China, AND over litigation-regulation-taxation here.
Getting the US House in order with lower taxes, and Tort reform would put the US back into a fair trade position. Get your house in order first.
The companies are leaving for more than just cheaper labor.
It amazes me any manufacturing has remained in NY State. What a horror landscape of taxes and regulations. NY voters need to replace this slug in the next election cycle.
It wasn't an insult. It was an opinion based upon your simplistic summary of a complex issue. With regard to where your post was "wrong," an equally logical question is where your post was "correct." It was nothing but an unsupported expression of a personal opinion regarding a very complex economic and political issue (i.e. not deep in thought).
Bur even a stopped clock is right twice a day....and Schmuckie is right on this issue.
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