Ah yes, the world according to the WTO:
US Subsidies = bad; Eu Subsidies = OK
Face it, the EU sunsidizes EVERY industry over here. The US, when it tries to allieviate the burden that it's domestic industry faces due to these subsidies is REPEATEDLY told by the EuWTO that we are not adhering to agreements.
The US has pretty much given up soveriegnty on trade matters, and likely will in other areas as well. It's long overdue that we cancel ALL of these agreements and restore the Constitutional Republic.
I seriously doucbt that I will ever see that day . . .
What we really need is some sharp trade negotiators instead of the dim bulbs that have gotten us into these situations in the first place (Airbus, etc.). We had the chance to go after Airbus several years ago and, at the time, we let it go figuring they would not be a factor. Pretty bad foresight. Unfortunately, I cannot see us reversing any deals that we have already made, but I do hope we don't continue to make stupid deals in the future.
We have the highest productivity and some of the best design and engineering people in the world. As a result, we can compete with anyone when it comes to complex products. Many US manufacturers are bringing their component production back here from China because of quality concerns. We can produce products with sophisticated automation that have higher precision and do it more efficiently. I concede that we cannot compete with these low-cost countries on simple products where labor defines the cost. Let China make paper clips and we can produce jet engines and sophisticated medical devices.
As an aside, I have to admit I wish we still made screws here. The ones at Home Depot are all made in China and are utter crap. I went through a whole box putting up half a dozen shelves the other day. I also bought four lamps - all made in China - and had to re-wire and re-drill all of them. When China does eventually catch up with the rest of the world in terms of quality, their products will no longer be cheap.
I heard someone speak form a large US company that is the world leader in their product area a few months ago, and when asked how his company is able to survive all the foreign competition he said they do not, and will never compete on price. They compete by making the best product and being innovative. He said that as soon as you market your product based on price it is time to hang it up - you are done. I look at all the manufacturers I deal with on a regular basis and the ones that are the most successful follow that same guideline. The lowest price is not necessarily the best value.
The Byrd amendment, however is not a trade deal. It was a budget item put in by Robert Byrd that takes the additional tariffs that are collected as offsets to items that were being dumped here in the US and hands them out to individual companies. It was designed as corporate welfare for his constituents and has ballooned since then. It is expected to reach $3.8 billion by 2014.
I am 100% in favor of free and fair trade. If a company is dumping, they should face penalties in the form of additional tariffs. So the US company gets the benefit of seeing stiff penalties in the form of added tariffs put on their foreign competitors' goods. That's the way it should be, but they shouldn't also get a huge check from the Treasury on top of it. If some of these companies put as much effort into developing new and innovative products, or new ways to market existing products, instead of looking for government checks we would all be better off.