Economics: Turn Around Is Fair Game :: essays research papers

Economics Turn Around is Fair GameAmericas surface and prosperity have made it the largest consumer of instanted products in the world. Brightly lighten shopping m all tolds adorned with thelatest foreign-made apparel, gadgets and trinkets, testify to the vast selectionof goods visible(prenominal) for purchase. There is a dark side to this enormous quantityof choices a hefty terms tag - the federal deficit. Unfair trade agreements,and, offensive pricing strategies and practices from abroad, placed those goodson the stores shelves. The United States Trade Representative (USTR), who is without delay responsible to the President and Congress for trade negotiations isforecasting a deuce hundred billion-dollar trade deficit for fiscal year 1996.The American concourse must demand reciprocal trade agreements for afieldbusiness competitors. laudatory vocation would put an end to subsidiseddumping, curb the loss of manufacturing jobs, and, burst down the barriersassociated with fr ee trade.The practice of selling items at a price less than what it costs to makethem is called dumping. Foreign governments subsidize the manufacturingprocesses of certain industries so their companies can displace thecompetitions industry. The television industry is a perfect theoretical account ofsubsidized dumping. The post World War II infusion of subsidized Japanese-madetelevisions, terminated the United States(U.S.) television manufacturingindustry. In the late 1950s, half a million units crossed our borders, tax andtariff free. These television sets were made utilize cheaper components andcheaper labor. However, the cost of transportation, which would normallyescalate each individual price, was paid for by the Japanese government. Thepioneering inventors of the electronic marvel were forced out. No longer sufficientto compete by meeting rapidly declining prices, companies had to stop production,liquidate all available assets, and release their entire work force.Unemployme nt figures for 1996 are predicted to be at seven percent (USTR,1996.) This equates to nearly twenty million skilled American workers withoutjobs. The math is simple imports cost an economy jobs, exports produce jobs.Reciprocal trading contracts would definitely curb the exponential loss ofmanufacturing jobs.Trade barriers are the largest problems approach American companies inoverseas markets. The obstructions are sometimes overt, sometimes isolated andusually extremely complex. Deals are covertly impeded with complicatedlicensing and import procedures. Regulations concerning special specificationstandards and testing of American goods are hurdles designedly enacted toblock fair trade. If foreign governments were mandated to treat Americanbusinesses the same focusing native companies were treated, free commerce would trulybe achieved.The U.S. has used an inventory of tools to try to mitigate unfair tradepractices and enhance U.S. access to overseas markets. These include Sectio n301 of the 1974 Trade Act - Section 301 serves as the flagship of the