Protecting America's Jobs
As part of my strategy will be to seek to preserve and protect the manufacturing sector and our union workers. No modern nation can export its manufacturing sector without dire consequences. Part of this plan must also include China being expected to play by rules that will allow for more American products into their markets.
Dealing with a massive trade imbalance, the United States is on the brink of losing its economic position as the global standard. With a trade deficit of $816 billion dollars we now rank last in the world in trade imbalance. 45% of this debt is foreign owned. With the benefits of cheaper products comes the price of a potential upside down trade situation. Not ironically, China now ranks #1 as the country with the best trade surplus. Any type of global crisis that finds the U.S. and China on different sides of the situation could prove very precarious for us. Using economic leverage to influence an international situation is quite possible. China could dump as little as 5-10% of our U.S. Treasury bonds demanding hard currency, which could cause a huge stock market crisis.
We must seek to turn our potential difficult situations into positives. Countries such as China and India provide a potential huge market for American owned products. As they continue to industrialize and push further towards greater consumerism, it seems inevitable that there will be a balancing effect. However a true free market approach must insist that global trade continue openly if it is going to benefit the average American. Regardless of the fact that those at the top of the economic ladder have little concern for low cost goods, we must remember that the average American family needs these low cost products. We must however do all that we can to maintain our industrial jobs particularly here in Texas and expand jobs in high-tech and light manufacturing.
As my grandfather and many of my relatives did and continue to work in union manufacturing jobs, I support their right to collective bargaining and will do my part to support the American worker. Only through unions can we expect to retain quality of craftsmanship while providing a much needed measure of independence.
In a flattened world, governments including our own must be engaged in the global economic system while ensuring as our top priorities job security and affordable high quality products. As I will continue to say, I do support our continued effort to pressure the Asian governments of China and Japan particularly to open more American made products into their markets. American manufacturers must be given access to the global markets so that we are able to retain jobs. With the innovation that America is known for, we can create more jobs through the development of high tech manufacturing. We must use our own leverage diplomatically and economically to insist on fair trade between our nations. Our insistence with the help of the WTO that intellectual property rights be strictly enforced will be critical to our advantage in technical and business innovation Billions of dollars have been lost to intellectual property theft.
Free Trade agreements must continue to be analyzed to close some of the loopholes that countries and corporations have taken advantage of. I oppose any suggestion of a Trans-Texas corridor. We must continue to analyze the effects of NAFTA and look at a cost/benefit analysis.
