|
WASHINGTON - Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) today offered Connecticut manufacturers a concrete strategy to recapture its leadership in manufacturing and reverse the worst decline in U.S. manufacturing since post-World War II. The crisis has hit Connecticut particularly hard, costing the state more than 13 percent of its manufacturing jobs since January 2001. In a written statement to a Manufacturing Awareness Day rally held in New Britain and organized by the Manufacturing Alliance of Connecticut (MAC), Lieberman offered several proposals to push for fair trade, encourage entrepreneurship and innovation in the private sector and provide new tools for education and workforce training. "Our manufacturing strategy must be to compete. And win," Lieberman said. "America needs strong, activist trade and manufacturing policies not only to knock down barriers to our products, but also to build up our competitive strengths in manufacturing: our ability to rapidly and continuously introduce new, more efficient processes and materials, our trained and adaptable workforce, our innovative products." Lieberman's statement comes on the heels of two letters requesting action on the manufacturing crisis that the senator sent yesterday. First, Lieberman joined many Congressional colleagues in asking President Bush to direct the Treasury, the State Department and the U.S. Trade Representative to combat China's currency manipulation that has contributed to an unfair trade advantage. Lieberman and his colleagues asked the president to pressure the Chinese government to change their currency exchange rate policy and freely float the yuan, which is now severely undervalued, by pressing for appropriate action under the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the GATT global trade treaty and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Additionally, Lieberman joined Senator Chris Dodd in a letter to the Senate Finance Committee to ask that it help the nation's manufacturers compete against unfair trade practices in the wake of the World Trade Organization's (WTO's) recent rejection of U.S. policies to even out trade inequities caused by weaker foreign corporate tax systems. The full text of Lieberman's statement to the rally is below. The text of Lieberman's letters is available upon request. August 1, 2003 Dear Friends: Thank you for the giving me the opportunity to address today's rally. I regret that I am not able to join you in person, but I did want to express my strong support and assure you that I am with you in spirit. You are waging a critical cause for the well being of our country and you can count on me as an enlistee. "Not unhealthy." That is how Undersecretary of Defense Michael Wynne characterized our Nation's manufacturing industry in a press interview last week. He went on to say that the Pentagon was unaware of any major problems with our domestic machine-tool industry. Well, I don't know about you, but I wonder what planet Undersecretary Wynne is on. Clearly not the same planet as Cincinnati Machine's Chip Storie, who only two weeks before - in testimony before a House committee on the defense industrial base - said flatly that the machine tool industry in the United States today is in a crisis. Connecticut's famous machine tool companies would give the same testimony. And clearly not the same planet we're on, where we've lost 2.4 million American manufacturing jobs since George Bush took office. We've now seen 30 consecutive months of job loss in manufacturing - something that is not news in Connecticut, where we've lost more than 13 percent of our manufacturing jobs since January 2001. The fact is that we're witnessing the worst decline in U.S. manufacturing since post-World War II. That's a message I've been delivering around the country the last couple of weeks, and I applaud your efforts here today to speak out on this issue. You need to educate our country why manufacturing matters. Our people need to understand that every manufacturing job creates 4 or 5 other jobs. That the manufacturing sector, which led our great growth spurt in the 90's, must come back or we're not going to recover. The way you do well in the global economy is by selling product not services because the currency of international trade is manufactured goods. If we want to stay strong we're going to have to recapture our leadership in manufacturing. Aggressive pursuit of free trade policies has brought world markets to our doorstep. That's a good thing, but it's only half the equation. Our trade deficit on goods reached $482 billion last year - the largest in our history. This group understands that our future economic strength lies not in less trade but more. We have only 4 percent of the world's population - we only stay strong if we sell to the other 96 percent. There is no hiding from today's global economy, no way to shut the door in its face. But a do-nothing policy that sacrifices our manufacturing sector to global competition is not acceptable either. Our manufacturing strategy must be to compete. And win. America needs strong, activist trade and manufacturing policies not only to knock down barriers to our products, but also to build up our competitive strengths in manufacturing: our ability to rapidly and continuously introduce new, more efficient processes and materials, our trained and adaptable workforce, our innovative products. Of course we need to push for fair trade as well as free trade. This means: - Taking on China's currency policies that distort free trade by systematically undervaluing their currency. Think about trying to compete when the other guy has fixed his currency to give himself a 40% price advantage;
- Cracking down on counterfeit goods and intellectual property theft that costs our companies more than $200 billion annually;
- Eliminating tax loopholes that encourage too many companies to ship jobs overseas;
- Strengthening enforcement of trade agreements. This Administration has more trade negotiators in Bahrain and Morocco than trade relations in China;
- Raising global standards for worker rights and environmental protection; and
- Expanding export assistance, particularly for small and medium-sized manufacturers.
All these things are important. But even more important is to make the most of our historic competitive strengths - American ingenuity and our American workforce. Let's fight from the high ground. Let's encourage entrepreneurship and innovation in the private sector by, for example: - Creating public-private research partnerships to help develop and deploy the next generation of advanced manufacturing processes. In the 80's, Sematech rebuilt the semiconductor sector - we need what I call Nextech to give our companies and workers new manufacturing process technologies that no competitor will be able to match;
- Building the 21st Century innovation infrastructure - ultra-high-speed Internet - and seeding the private sector to replace antiquated energy, transportation, and production systems with new, environmentally-friendly infrastructure - think of the industries we could build around these new public-private investments; and
- Strengthening technology support for small manufacturers by expanding cooperative programs like the highly successful Manufacturing Extension Partnership -- which the Bush administration is doggedly trying to kill.
- And remember Undersecretary Wynne? Let's give him a wake up call. Our national security depends on our technology and industrial leadership. The Pentagon need to wake up and use its Buy America power to buy smart and insure the strong industrial base we must have.
And while I'm on tools, let's give our workers the tools they need. It's estimated that 60 percent the new jobs created in the 21st century will require skills held by only 20 percent of today's workforce. We need to address workforce training, but don't stop there. We need a new educational paradigm that emphasizes lifetime learning for all citizens, that enables and encourages people to acquire new skills as they need them. Let's: - Create new training scholarships to help workers get and keep good jobs in our fast-moving economy;
- Bring together regional manufacturers, workforce representatives and community colleges to create one-stop Worker of the Future Centers in every state to deliver workers training where they need it; and
- Strengthen the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, including training assistance, and find new ways like wage insurance to help workers find new jobs as quickly as possible.
Those are some of the ideas I've proposed. Let me know your ideas. We have a challenging task ahead of us if we want to preserve U.S. manufacturing, which really means preserving U.S. economic strength. Like everyone here, I think it's time to get to work. Thank you. With best regards, Joseph I. Lieberman
United States Senator
|
