AAM Letter to Congress: Support Legislation to Keep Federal Funds from Enriching Chinese SOEs

by: Alliance for American Manufacturing

Washington, D.C. - March 21, 2019 - (The Ponder News) -- The Alliance for American Manufacturing is urging members of Congress to support the bipartisan Transit Infrastructure Vehicle Security Act, introduced by U.S. Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). This vital legislation would ban Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funds from being used to award a contract or subcontract to a Chinese state-owned, controlled or subsidized enterprise (SOE).

In a letter submitted today, Alliance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul wrote:

"America's tax dollars should not be used to support Chinese state-owned firms seeking to undermine market competition."

Letter reads as follows:

Dear Senators and Representatives:

On behalf of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), a partnership between the United Steelworkers (USW) and leading U.S. manufacturing companies, I am writing to express our support for the Transit Infrastructure Vehicle Security Act. This legislation would ban Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funds from being used to award a contract or subcontract to a Chinese state-owned, controlled, or subsidized enterprise.

Backed by deep government support and Beijing's "Made in China 2025" initiative, China's electric bus and rail state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are rapidly altering the U.S. competitive landscape for rolling stock manufacturing. This is having a profoundly negative impact on established, private-sector U.S. firms and jeopardizing supply chains that employ tens of thousands of American workers.

China Railroad Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) – a Chinese SOE – has drastically altered the competitive landscape for domestic railcar manufacturing. Since 2014, CRRC has secured major metro transit car contracts in Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Chicago with impossibly low bids. In Boston, CRRC's bid was hundreds of millions of dollars below the next lowest bidder. In Philadelphia, another bidder was quoted as saying, "I cannot grasp how they are able to do it at that cost." There should be no doubting CRRC's strategy to establish itself in the U.S. market and to eliminate legitimate competition through any means necessary, even if it means losing substantial sums of money along the way. With deals in DC, Atlanta, and Miami within CRRC's sights, it is vital for U.S. national security, innovation, and jobs that we stop subsidizing the destruction of our domestic rolling stock manufacturing base with federal dollars.

The electric bus industry is also in Beijing's sights. BYD, or Build Your Dreams, assembles electric buses in the United States and is both influenced and subsidized by the Chinese government. BYD has been plagued by quality issues and a recent OIG investigation by the City of Albuquerque suggests that "the majority, if not all, parts were manufactured in China and shipped to the United States" – including the bus frame, chassis, walls, drive train, axels, motor, lights, seating and seat belts, and more. BYD not only aggressively undermines healthy market competition in the electric bus procurement market, it threatens to displace supply chains here in the United States with imported parts and components shipped in from China.

It is vital that the United States act to prevent the destruction of the U.S. competitive landscape for rolling stock manufacturing before it is too late. America's tax dollars should not be used to support Chinese state-owned firms seeking to undermine market competition. Please support the bipartisan Cornyn-Baldwin-Crapo-Brown Transit Infrastructure Vehicle Security Act.

Sincerely,

Scott N. Paul

President

Alliance for American Manufacturing

China is Still Breaking WTO Trade Promises 16 Years Later

By Alliance for American Manufacturing



Washington, D.C. - December 15, 2017 - (The Ponder News) -- China's years of broken promises, non-market economy, and predatory trade practices have decimated American factory jobs and still threaten to put U.S. manufacturers out of business 16 years after it joined the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"Over a decade later and the U.S.-China state-of-play hasn't changed much," said Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM). "China is still making promises it doesn't intend to keep and demanding even more access to our markets. We're living in a 'China first' world, and if our leaders don't act, our domestic factory jobs will continue to disappear."

Beijing has done little regarding economic reform since 2001 when the country joined the WTO. For example, the Chinese government requires intellectual property transfers from foreign companies operating within its borders, subsidizes companies that flood global markets with cheap imports, and skirts international trade law.

Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jingping has demanded China be considered a "market economy," a designation that eases trade rules based on the principle that a country's economy is open rather than managed by the state. The United States has six criteria outlining a market economy, and China fails to meet a single requirement.

"China has shown its unwillingness to meet its commitments, and unless we insist it do so, the next generation of industry will not be made in America," Paul said. "The White House has voiced valid criticism of the WTO and should continue fighting for a fair dispute system. Concurrently, the administration should follow-through on open Section 232 steel and aluminum imports. American jobs are at stake, and workers deserve action now."

U.S.-China economic facts:

1. Chinese state firms contribute between 25-30 percent of China’s industrial output on average, although state-owned enterprises in some sectors exceed 90 percent as of 2016.
2. China’s share of the U.S. goods deficit set a new record in 2015, reaching 50 percent.
3. The cumulative U.S. trade deficit with China since it joined the WTO is over $3.5 trillion.
4. The growing U.S. trade deficit with China cost 3.2 million jobs between 2001 and 2013.
5. The ratio of Chinese imports to U.S. exports is about 4:1.
6. Seventy-five percent of new steel stock since 2000 has come from China.
7. As many as 15,000 U.S. steel and iron workers are facing layoff as a result of Chinese overcapacity, and nearly 33 percent of American steel jobs have vanished during the last two decades.
8. Over 1,000 antidumping cases have been initiated against China globally since 1995.
9. Despite promises to cut capacity, China accounted for over half the world's steel capacity from 2014-2016.
10. All 435 Congressional Districts have lost jobs to China due to Beijing’s unfair trade practices.

See more headlines at The Ponder News Web Site

Workers to Congress: Delayed National Security Investigations Threaten Jobs, U.S. Defense

Source: Alliance for American Manufacturing

Washington, D.C. - September 21, 2017  (The Ponder News) -- America's military is under attack by steel and aluminum imports that threaten to wipe out jobs, put U.S. manufacturers out of business, and make national defense more dependent on potential adversaries to equip our troops – if a stalled national security investigation does not conclude.

That was the message delivered by dozens of steelworkers to Members of Congress Tuesday as they descended on Capitol Hill, calling for action to shore up the beleaguered domestic steel and aluminum industries.

The purpose of the Trump administration’s delayed investigations, each known as a Section 232, is to determine the effect of steel and aluminum imports on national security. President Trump promised to unveil the findings of the two separate investigations by the end of June but still hasn’t taken action. Meanwhile, steel imports are up more than 21 percent since the investigations were announced, and China’s steel output continues to grow.

“We’re pretty much at a make or break point now,” said steelworker Calvin Croftcheck, a 40-year industry veteran and chief safety inspector for U.S. Steel. “If we don’t get some relief quickly, and if it’s not substantial relief, that’s not going to help us any.”

Croftcheck was among workers who came to Capitol Hill from steelmaking facilities in eight states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Minnesota, Kentucky, and Michigan.

The workers were there to press the importance of the outstanding investigations. A surge of steel and aluminum imports, often heavily subsidized and produced by state-owned enterprises in China and Russia, are among the chief causes behind American plant closures and thousands of layoffs in recent years. This instability puts the reliable supply of these important commodities under tremendous strain, and raises national security concerns. Steel and aluminum are crucial inputs in numerous military platforms and public infrastructures, from battleships and troop carriers to our domestic electric grid.

“We’ve seen an increase in the amount of imports since President Trump made these promises, and lacking the actual action by President Trump, this is actually hurting us,” said Cliff Tobey, a worker at U.S. Steel’s Keetac mining facility on the Minnesota Iron Range. “I really do hope the president stands by his word and does it relatively quickly, because we’re actually seeing an increase (in imports), and that’s not good for the steel industry in the United States.”

In their meetings, the workers urged lawmakers to support President Trump’s investigations and, if necessary, pressure him to follow through on his promises.

"President Trump won industrial states last year by promising a new path on trade and said he'd look out for America's steelworkers," said Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing and former member of President Trump's Manufacturing Jobs Initiative. “But his delay in action on steel and aluminum has actually made matters worse for these workers and their communities – to say nothing about the serious national security implications created by this ambiguity. The president needs to act now on these investigations.”

Manufacturing Sees Big August Jobs Gains

Source: Alliance for American Manufacturing

Washington, D.C. - September 3, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- The manufacturing sector gained 36,000 jobs in August, according to the latest employment data from the Labor Department. These factory jobs gains, led by automotive and appliance sales, come amid a strong second quarter of economic expansion.

Said Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) President Scott Paul:

"Did the robot revolution take the month off?

"Adding 36,000 new factory jobs in August is good news for American workers. For the first time in a long time, manufacturing punched above its weight in the job market, accounting for 23 percent of total job growth. There’s great potential for continued manufacturing job growth – but only if we get the policy right.

"How can we keep up the momentum? Pass an infrastructure bill with strong Buy America preferences to put more people back to work. The administration must also invest in training the workers of the future, move forward with rebalancing trade, and hold China accountable."