America Loses 15 Manufacturing Facilities Each Day
America’s failed trade policies are hastening the demise of the nation’s manufacturing base to the point that the U.S. has lost an average of 15 manufacturing facilities per day over the past 10 years, according to Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH).
From 2001 through the end of 2010, the U.S. lost 56,190, manufacturing facilities, and in recent years the pace has increased. The U.S. lost 8,660 factories in 2010: a rate of more than 23 per day.
“Many big companies have not created jobs in the U.S. Instead, they’ve taken many of their jobs to countries with the cheapest labor, the least regulations and few employee rights. This flies in the face of the Republicans’ concern that taxes on the rich means fewer jobs,” she said.
“On that point, every day in the United States, we are losing 15 factories. Yet here on this House floor, those on the other side of the aisle are content in trying to protect the loopholes that ship jobs overseas.”
Failed free trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Central American Free Trade Agreement and the pending South Korean Free Trade Agreement have made it profitable and convenient for giant multinational corporations to relocate manufacturing jobs to countries with low wages and little regulation.
With the ink barely dry on the South Korean agreement and two others, the Obama administration is already seeking out other trade pacts, including the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership.
By the time all is said and done, the trade pact could include Japan and Vietnam, among others. Tearing down trade barriers between the U.S. and those countries will only result in more pain for the manufacturing sector in America.
Japan would be able to flood the American market with high-end goods like electronics and vehicles. Vietnam could become the latest destination for thousands of American factories.
“The congresswoman has always had a very strong focus on revitalizing our manufacturing base and bringing new jobs to Ohio,” a spokeswoman for Sutton told PolitiFact Ohio.
“Because when you look at problems from the deficit on down, a lot of those problems can be remedied, in large part by rebuilding and revitalizing our manufacturing base.”
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