Washington, D.C., March 18 – The 1,900 domestic manufacturers of the U.S. Business and Industry Council today called on President Obama to refocus his international trade policies so that they help U.S.-based industry combat foreign protectionism and restore solid, sustainable economic growth here at home.  The group’s first recommendation, in a prominent display ad in this morning’s Washington Post, implicitly urged the President to act decisively against rampant Chinese protectionism, which accounts for roughly a third of the U.S. current account deficit.

As documented by the ad (copy below), despite numerous international complaints about new (though entirely legal) U.S. Buy-American policies, the U.S. economy remains the gold standard of openness.  According to USBIC president Kevin L. Kearns, “It’s high time for President Obama to stop apologizing to the world’s real protectionists and take concrete steps to end their longstanding unfair trade practices – practices that have killed so many American factories and good jobs, and that have produced the worldwide imbalances at the heart of the global recession.”

Moreover, Kearns argued, “With so many foreign protectionists having added so many new trade barriers recently, the need for effective responses by Washington grows more urgent with each passing day.”  

Continued Kearns, “We’re running the ad to set the record on protectionism straight and to embolden our leaders to act.  Too many in the Obama administration, the Congress, the media, and the think tanks reflexively view domestic American producers as protectionist while giving the world’s real protectionists a free pass.”

Kearns said, “The only lasting way out of this deep economic crisis for the country and the entire world is for Americans to produce more at home and consume less from abroad.  That means combating predatory foreign trade practices, whether our trading partners like it or not.  Their free ride has to end if the American and global economies are to resume sustainable growth.  Anything less would merely create a new worldwide economic bubble that bursts with even  more devastating consequences in the not-too-distant future.  Either President Obama puts a halt to America’s over-consumption of subsidized foreign goods with over-borrowed foreign cash, or his recovery plan fails.  It’s that simple.”

Kearns stated that “Increased production by our domestic manufacturing firms is the only sure and certain way out of the crisis.  Domestic manufacturers can provide the products that Americans want while at the same time providing the good jobs they need to maintain a decent standard of living.  The President must end the foreign protectionist measures and unfair trade practices that have ravaged our industrial base, to enable our firms and people to prosper once again, and to lay a solid foundation for the global economy. ”

“Of course, foreign governments and companies are going to yelp,” said Kearns.  “They have grown used to living off America for far too long.  But ending their unfair – and shortsighted – behavior is much like taking steroids out of baseball.  Unless it happens, the entire world trading system will be ruined.”

According to Kearns, “Recent U.S. trade policy measures like the Buy-American provisions in the stimulus bill represent the bare minimum needed to stem a crisis caused largely by our country’s under-producing, over-importing, and over-consuming, and by the fake, debt-fueled prosperity concocted to fill the gap.”

Concluded Kearns, “Production and jobs lost to foreign protectionism are damaging enough in normal times for Americans.  Nowadays they will help make the difference between a worsening meltdown and a genuine chance for restored worldwide economic health.  Either President Obama becomes the major change agent he portrayed himself during his presidential campaign, and uses new trade policies to rebuild America’s productive and wealth-creating capacities, or the U.S. and global economies could sink below the point of no return.”

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