Dayton Daily News...
Regional economic summit explores manufacturing
By Thomas Gnau and Steve Bennish  
October  10, 2011 

DAYTON — Participants in a summit Friday on Ohio manufacturing emerged ready to urge area lawmakers to pursue trade and tax reform to spur new jobs. 

“We need to rebuild a country, not tweak it,” said Michael Stumo, chief executive of a Coalition for a Prosperous America, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit focused on U.S. industry, trade and farming that organized the meeting. 

Sponsored by the Dayton Development Coalition, DMAX, Dayton-Phoenix Co., and others, the “Dayton and Southwest Ohio Economic Summit on the Revitalization of Manufacturing” brought more than 120 business, labor and academic representatives to the Dayton Convention Center, including U.S. Rep. Steve Austria, R-Beavercreek, and Buddy Roemer, former Louisiana governor and current candidate for the GOP presidential nomination. 

“Manufacturing has been a key part of our history in the Miami Valley,” Austria said. “Government should be there to help you and get out of the way.” 

“In the past 10 years, we’ve lost 60,000 manufacturing plants in the U.S.,” Roemer said. “That’s 7 million jobs with 17 million jobs lost indirectly. We need a change in U.S. industrial policy and broadened tariffs.” 

A host of concerns bubbled up in discussions, including Chinese currency moves, corporate offshoring, federal regulations, taxes and an apparent lack of qualified workers. 

Pat Choate, director of the Manufacturing Policy Project and Ross Perot’s 1996 running mate, said the U.S. should call for a “time out” to reassess trade policy because of the “emergency” of high unemployment and trade deficits. 

“We need to get our accounts in balance,” he said. “Other nations do it all the time. We have to recognize the nature of our problem and deal with it in smart ways.” 

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