Desperate to pass TPP, Obama's Administration wants to change the way trade in manufactured goods

[Elwood P Dowd]

38. More on "Factoryless Goods" From the International Association Of Machinist Workers

http://www.goiam.org/index.php/news/284-issue-updates/12852-iam-dont-classify-foreign-goods-as-american-made

<snip>

The proposal, Herrnstadt writes, “creates an Alice-in-Wonderland distortion of manufacturing statistics” that would construct the illusion of surging U.S. exports and a shrinking trade deficit. It would show accelerated growth in sectors like manufacturing, when in fact the industry is stagnate and shrinking.

American companies that outsource most or all of their production would be able to qualify for tax incentives and government financing found in Buy American laws and U.S. Export-Import Bank policies. It could cost hundreds of thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs, writes Herrnstadt.

“It is easy to imagine that some companies could claim that their products are made in the United States when they are made offshore,” writes Herrnstadt. “Consumers looking for the Made in the USA label would be dumbfounded to learn that goods made in China and elsewhere would be considered manufactured in America.”

Instead of creating deceiving statistics, Herrnstadt proposes a comprehensive policy that’s open to reforming current U.S. policy on outsourcing, reviews all government incentives that encourage outsourcing, establishes a manufacturing development bank and creates a uniform method for calculating domestic content throughout all government agencies.