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COPYRIGHT 2003 FDCH e-media
Original Source: LOU DOBBS TONIGHT
ANNOUNCER: This is a special holiday edition of LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Thursday, November 27. Sitting in for Lou Dobbs, Kitty Pilgrim.
KITTY PILGRIM, CNNfn ANCHOR, LOU DOBBS TONIGHT: Good evening. Tonight, "Exporting America," our special report on the alarming trend of sending American jobs overseas. It`s an effort to save money for companies because foreign labor is cheaper. But it`s a big business practice that carries an enormous cost to the American economy.
More than two million American jobs have been exported in the last two years alone. The United States trade deficit with China is currently at record levels, and Americans are buying tens of billions of dollars worth of overseas products every month.
Tonight, we`ll hear from Commerce Secretary Don Evans about the Bush administration`s plans to stem the flood of American jobs offshore. And former U.S. Ambassador to China, James Sasser, talks about America`s trade relationship with China and what that means for millions of out of work Americans. He will join us.
And some good news. Some American companies are fighting to keep American work workers on the job.
We begin tonight with what many call the global race to the bottom. Major retailers are in competition to sell their products at the lowest possible price no matter what the cost to the American worker. Too often, the so- called race to the bottom is leaving the American worker in last place.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM (voice-over): A Nike [Company: NIKE Inc.; Ticker: NKE; URL: http://www.nike.com/] store in New York City. Ninety-nine percent of all Nike sneakers are made Asia, in factories like this one in China. At The Gap [Company: The Gap Inc.; Ticker: GPS; URL: http://www.gap.com/], 95 percent of products made in China and 50 other countries.
All-American J. Crew , not exactly. Eighty percent made in Asia. Wal-Mart [Company: Wal-Mart Stores Inc.; Ticker: WMT ; URL: http://www.wal- mart.com/], the largest retailer in the world, and the largest importer of goods made from China, $12 billion worth a year.
Retailers are buying more from overseas, and millions of U.S. manufacturing jobs have migrated to low-wage countries. American workers lose out.
BRUCE RAYNOR, PRESIDENT UNITE: Manufacturing workers in this country, $14, $15, $16 an hour with benefits, some of them more than that. They`re not jobs you get rich. These are people that are making it to the lower middle class. Those jobs are wiped out.
PILGRIM: Workers are cheaper overseas. The National Labor Committee has found in some extreme cases Chinese workers making just 3 cents an hour. A comparative retailing study by a private research group found U.S. workers making $8 an hour, while they were making $1.15 in the Dominican Republic, 35 cents in Mexico, 65 cents in Thailand, and 15 cents an hour in Indonesia.
CHARLES KERNAGHAN, NATIONAL LABOR COMMITTEE: It`s true, we are engaged in this race to the bottom where companies move production, like on a chessboard, in search of the lowest wages. In the United States, workers are being pitted against desperately poor people in the developing world in this race to the bottom.
PILGRIM: The profit is enormous. The markup on the product is exponential. The National Labor Committee found a Nike T-shirt that cost $20 in the United States is made by workers in Honduras making 6 cents an hour. A Sean John long-sleeved T-shirt selling for $40 is made in Honduras by workers making 15 cents an hour.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: The pressure has been on retailers to monitor working conditions abroad even if they don`t own the factories themselves. Major retailers have joined the Fair Labor Association to work with government to improve working conditions abroad.
The world`s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, is currently China`s fifth largest market. Wal-Mart imports $12 billion worth of Chinese goods every year. As a nation, the United States is expected to record a staggering $130 billion trade deficit with China by the end of this year. But the debate about how to control the deficit has become more than a matter of economics.
In a highly political move, China has announced deals to buy millions of dollars worth of U.S.-made cars and auto parts. Those deals, however, will barely dent the massive trade imbalance.
Bill Tucker reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL TUCKER, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Washington, D.C., Commerce Secretary Don Evans presides over the signing of billions of dollars worth of deals with Boeing [Company: The Boeing Company ; Ticker: BA ; URL: http://www.boeing.com/] and General Electric [Company: General Electric Company; Ticker: GE; URL: http://www.ge.com/]. In Detroit, China`s vice minister of commerce signs multi-billion-dollar deals with Ford [Company: Ford Motor Company ; Ticker: F ; URL: http://www.ford.com/] and General Motors [Company: General Motors Corporation; Ticker: GM; URL: http://www.gm.com/], under which the automakers will ship 5,000 vehicles a piece to China. But here`s the problem: the cumulative trade deficit with China in the first nine months of this year alone is greater than $77 billion.
LAEL BRAINARD, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: This is an absolutely tried and tested pattern with the Chinese. What the administration, what Congress and what U.S. businesses need to do is say, hey, this is not enough. Yes, we`re happy to get your deals, but there are fundamental problems in our trade with China that need to be fixed.
TUCKER: But it would appear the companies and the politicians are content to take the money and smile. And the deals are worth a lot. But their total value barely exceeds what we are now buying routinely from China in any given three-month period. And for that reason, at...
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