loosecannon
Senior Member
- May 7, 2007
- 4,888
- 269
- 48
"What happens is the international trade policies in China are designed so that brass product stays in China, and goes to manufacturing companies that then ship a final product over here. So we're seeing the impact from China's imports not at our production level as much as our customers are facing that competition," O'Shaughnessy said. "We're seeing a loss of our customer base rather than direct competition to supply our customers. And if you think about it, it is an intelligent thing for China to do to benefit its work force, because it wants to produce value-added product there."
A decade ago, he said, U.S. copper mills supplied domestic makers of locksets for doors. That's gone completely overseas. Now the fear is that China's push into the automotive sector may hit the same way.
"We're not concerned about China sending in components and sub-assemblies into the United States. We're concerned that as they ship cars in, we will lose that transportation market," O'Shaughnessy said.
Republicans and Democrats, he said, both fail to recognize that global competition is no longer between companies. Rather, U.S. companies compete against countries that align their trade policies to capture markets.
"The United States faces the lack of a national and international trading strategy, or economic policy ... we as a nation don't have an entity that competes with other nations, and I think this harkens back to a reluctance to get into national economic policy or strategies because of the concern that it has the taint of some kind of government control and government assistance," he said.
The free-trade debate gets bogged down in political labels, which O'Shaughnessy thinks misses the broader point.
"So you have got 'socialists' fighting the 'capitalists,' and neither side realizes the mercantilists are kicking their ass. Both of them, it doesn't matter whether you are on this side or that side, if you are dealing with a mercantilist society, and that's what we're fighting in China," he said.
Mercantilism was practiced by the great European powers centuries ago, and involved protecting domestic industry while trying to dominate global trade to secure wealth and power. Critics of U.S. policy toward China, and before that policy toward Japan, argue that the U.S. should take steps to favor its own industries more.
more at link
How China policy squeezes companies anchored in U.S. - KansasCity.com