Work as a Gas Station Attendant? Your Views Don’t Count

by Tula Connell, May 24, 2007

The Bush administration just ended two days of trade talks with China here in Washington, D.C. Unlike the past few discussions, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson didn’t need to travel to China to achieve next to nothing. He and others in the Bush camp could achieve very little while staying right here.

They certainly didn’t accomplish anything regarding China’s manipulation of its currency or the abysmal state of workers’ rights in that nation. In fact, they focused on issues of concern to Big Business, such as protecting intellectual property rights. As United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard puts it:

The American public is demanding their lawmakers start to act on their behalf instead of the American multinationals that are off-shoring manufacturing jobs to Beijing. 

Gerard was interviewed yesterday on the BBC’s World News Service. Listen to full interview here (MP3).

As AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says:

The Strategic Economic Dialogue with the Chinese once again produced lots of talk and no action on currency manipulation and workers’ rights. While progress on the environment is welcome, more air routes and financial services do not fix a currency that is undervalued by 40 percent.  

But we shouldn’t blame China’s government officials for artificially lowering its currency, a strategy that goes a long way toward making China now account for 43 percent of the U.S. manufactured goods trade deficit. At least, that’s the view of James Lilley, former U.S. ambassador to Beijing. 

He worries about the nation blaming China for tough economic times. In an interview with the BBC yesterday, Lilley said part of the problem in the trade deficit is the loss of American competiveness.  

But I think part of these problems in the trade deficit is the loss of American competitiveness. But this is demagoguery. This is appealing to people, the religious right, the gas station attendants, the guy with tattoos on his arms. This is Americana.”

Americana?

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