Fair trade enforcer proposed

Hollings proposes fair trade enforcer

Seeking more clout to ensure fair trade and preserve manufacturing jobs, U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., plans to introduce a bill next week that would let the U.S. Justice Department sue foreign companies that break U.S. trade laws.

That responsibility now rests with the U.S. Customs Service, an agency Hollings said has fewer resources and fewer people to enforce the laws. Hollings wants to create a new position in the Justice Department, an assistant attorney general for trade enforcement.

“We need to institutionalize our responsibility for enforcement of our trade laws,” said Hollings, who plans to retire from the Senate after 38 years when his term ends in 2005.

Hollings plans to discuss his proposal today at a Columbia hearing to discuss the impact of China on manufacturing in South Carolina and other states.

“We lost textiles, and now we’re losing semi-conductors and computers,” he said.

The Justice Department will review the proposal, said spokesman Blain Rethmeier.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.-S.C., who will also attend the hearing, is unfamiliar with Hollings’ proposal but will be interested in studying it, said Kevin Bishop, a spokesman for Graham.

“He’s concerned about how unfair trade practices, particularly by the Chinese, have hurt our manufacturing and textile industries,” Bishop said.

Graham has sponsored legislation to impose a 27.5 percent tariff on Chinese imports until it stops pegging its currency to the dollar, a practice that he and other critics say lets China ship goods to the U.S. with an unfair discount of 15 percent to 40 percent.

This will be the first time the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has held a field hearing in South Carolina, a state Hollings said has been particularly hurt by job losses from overseas competition.

U.S. Commerce Department figures based on average annual employment show South Carolina lost:

• 73,200 jobs from 2000 to 2003, a 4 percent drop and the first time the state’s overall jobs have fallen three years in a row since the Great Depression.

• 17,600 jobs in the Columbia metro area from 1999 to 2003, a 6 percent drop and marking four years in a row of job losses. Based on data going back to 1958, overall jobs have fallen only twice before in the metro area: 1974 and 1990.

• 59,700 jobs in manufacturing from 2000 to 2003, an 18 percent drop. That includes 23,700 jobs in textiles and apparel, down 28 percent, and 6,100 jobs in metal production and fabrication, down 16 percent.

Reach DuPlessis at (803) 771-8305 or jduplessis@thestate.com.