|
Dayton
Business Journal...
Report:
Chinese trade practices risk 200k Ohio jobs
by Joe
Cogliano, Senior Reporter
Tuesday,
January 31, 2012
A trio of
new reports release Tuesday claim that 1.6 million jobs in the U.S.
auto supply
chain — including nearly 200,000 in Ohio — are at risk because of
illegal
trading practices by China.
Officials
from the Economic Policy Institute, which authored two of the reports,
said
U.S. automakers have enjoyed a strong turnaround since the government
aided the
restructuring of General Motors
and
Chrysler, with U.S.-based automakers’ sales up 29.1 percent since 2009.
Ford
Motor Co. recently
posted a $13.6
billion quarterly profit as well. However, employment in the autoparts
and tire
industry has rebounded at less than half that rate.
“The auto
industry is helping turn our economy around by reviving manufacturing
facilities across the nation. But we’re at risk of this progress being
undercut
if we allow China to continue cheating trade laws,” said U.S. Sen.
Sherrod
Brown, D-Ohio. “Without an aggressive approach to addressing the
Chinese
subsidies outlined in this new report, this unlevel playing field could
jeopardize hundreds of thousands of jobs. We must be aggressive on
trade
enforcement — especially as China ramps up subsidies in strategic
industries,
like auto parts.”
Brown — who
has been a vocal critic of China’s trading practices — joined several
other
Senators as well as labor leaders and economists for the release of the
reports
on Tuesday, which includes:
• Growing
Threats to the U.S. Auto-Parts Industry from Heavily Subsidized Chinese
Tires
and Parts, by the Economic Policy Institute, shows 75 percent of jobs
in the
U.S. auto industry are in the auto-parts sector, with direct and
indirect auto
parts jobs in virtually every state. It concludes that every is
individually
at-risk from this unfair trade competition.
• Putting
the Pedal to the Metal: Subsidies to China’s Auto-Parts Industry from
2001 to
2011, by the Economic Policy Institute, cites $27.5 billion in
government
subsidies to the Chinese auto-parts industry and says that China’s
central
government has committed to an additional $10.9 billion in subsidies
for
industrial restructuring and technological development of the industry.
• China’s
Support Program for Automobiles and Auto Parts Under the 12th Five Year
Plan,
Stewart & Stewart, claims evidence that massive government
subsidies being
given to Chinese producers, in violation of China’s WTO commitments,
will
continue for years to come unless challenged. The Chinese government
will
invest $1.5 trillion in seven industries over the next five years to
enable
them to grow at an annual rate of 35 percent over the period; specific
auto
parts targeted in the plan include batteries, electric motors,
electronic
control systems, and fuel cells, according to the study.
The
Dayton-area economy still reaps large benefits from automakers because
of the
large number of auto suppliers still here. GM has 400 employees in
Dayton at
its DMAX engine plant that is a joint venture with Isuzu Motors, while
the
region also is home to Honda Motor Co, which has several thousand
workers at an
engine plant in Shelby County and thousands more at assembly plants
nearby.
The supply
chain jobs in the manufacturing sector locally also includes 500
workers at a
new Caterpiller facility in Clayton
Read this
and other articles at the Dayton Business Journal
|
