Report: China Rigs Subsidies, Manipulates Currency
Dave Johnson, a fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future, sends us this.
The new U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report on China should be a “wake-up call” for the United States, says Scott Paul, director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM). Click here to read the full report and here for a comprehensive list of the commission’s recommendations beginning on page 355 of the report.
In sum: China is rigging trade using subsidies and currency manipulation, has barriers to bringing in U.S. goods and is forcing American companies to hand over proprietary technology. The result is our huge trade deficit is getting even worse. China also is acting more like it could become a national security threat.
This bipartisan commission was created by Congress in 2000 “to monitor, investigate and submit to Congress an annual report on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China and to provide recommendations, where appropriate, to Congress for legislative and administrative action.”
Some key excerpts:
Pirate Attacks Increase, but Fewer Ships Taken
We’ve brought you several stories on high seas piracy, especially in the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, and described how the Seafarers (SIU) and global maritime unions are responding, including the “Save Our Seafarers” (SOS), anti-piracy campaign to push governments to do more to protect sailors and ships.
A new report shows attacks totaled 266 in the first six months of 2011, up from 196 incidents in the same period last year. But the pirates have captured fewer ships due to an increased naval presence in the troubled areas, one of the key elements that international seafaring unions pressed for with the SOS program.
Click here to read an update on the problems from the Seafarers LOG and here for more on the SOS program.
Seafarers Send Out SOS to Stop Piracy
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High seas piracy, especially in the Arabian Gulf and most of the Indian Ocean, “is becoming more savage and widespread,” says Seafarers (SIU) Secretary-Treasurer David Heindel.
A coalition of international maritime groups has now launched “Save Our Seafarers” (SOS), a new anti-piracy campaign to push governments to do more to protect sailors and ship and prevent pirates from “hijacking the world’s economy.” (Click here to visit the SOS channel on YouTube.)
As Heindel says, “the world has lost control of piracy.”
All the Arabian Gulf and most of the Indian Ocean are now effectively lawless. Yet there is a way that control can be regained: by actively going after pirates, stopping them and prosecuting them. Not this ludicrous situation of taking away their guns and setting them free to strike again.
Even when the mostly Somali pirates—who are currently holding about 800 international seafarers hostage—are captured, 80 percent are released to attack again, according to the SOS campaign. Read the rest of this entry »
Unions, Shippers Demand Action to End Somali Piracy: Sign the Petition
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A coalition of international unions, shipping associations, insurers and other maritime groups are demanding “concrete action” to end the increasingly violent and brazen Somali piracy “that is putting lives at risk and threatening world trade.”
The pirates’ 2009 attack on the U.S.-crewed Maersk Alabama and last fall’s kidnapping of a British couple still being held for a $7 million ransom have grabbed headlines. But in the past two years, Somali pirates attacked hundreds of ships and kidnapped more than 1,800 seafarers crewing those vessels. Many are still being held for ransom.
The coalition has launched on online petition and is seeking half a million signatures by World Maritime Day, Sept 23. The petition asks governments to dedicate the resources necessary, including stepped up naval protection, to end the attacks and “regain control of the Indian Ocean from a handful of criminals.”
To read and sign the petition, go to www.endpiracypetition.org.
Executive Council: Piracy Costs Good Jobs
The AFL-CIO Executive Council unanimously endorsed the entertainment industry unions’ campaign to stop the theft of intellectual property, often called piracy.
The council noted that each year, digital theft of sound recordings costs the U.S. economy $12.5 billion in total output and costs U.S. workers 71,060 jobs. Feature film piracy results in an estimated $5.5 billion in lost wages annually, and the loss of an estimated 141,030 jobs that would otherwise have been created.
The council statement said, in part:
Motion pictures, television, sound recordings and other entertainment are a vibrant part of the U.S. economy. They yield one of its few remaining trade surpluses. The online theft of copyrighted works and the sale of illegal CDs and DVDs threaten the vitality of U.S. entertainment and thus its working people.
