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Article published Oct 30, 2003
The
United States threatens to enforce its trade laws
U.S.
Commerce Secretary Don Evans made a strange threat to Chinese officials this
week: Either they fulfill their promises on trade or the United States will
enforce its trade laws.Evans boasted of this threat to reporters, telling them
he also pushed China to respect intellectual property rights.Of course, implicit
in a threat to start enforcing American trade laws is the acknowledgement that
the country is not enforcing its laws now.That's what textile and apparel
manufacturers have been complaining about for years. China has failed to open up
its markets to American goods, but the United States is ignoring its own trade
laws while it allows China to dump textile imports on American markets.It's good
to see the secretary of commerce acknowledging this fact. It's too late for the
105,000 textile and apparel workers who have lost their jobs in the past year or
the countless thousands who lost their livelihoods in previous mill closings.But
at least federal officials are recognizing the problem and threatening to deal
with it.Evans wants China to import more American goods, reducing the United
States' $103 billion trade deficit with China.The deals made with China during
Gov. Mark Sanford's current trip to Asia will help in that drive. The governor
helped two South Carolina businesses reach agreements to sell $87 billion in
goods and services to China.These are welcome developments, but they are small.
The maximum 300 jobs created by the China deals will replace a tiny fraction of
the jobs that have been lost in the textile industry.And Evans is still just
threatening to enforce the law, not fulfilling the duty of the government to
actually enforce its own laws.He points out that World Trade Organization rules
allow the United States to impose emergency trade restrictions to help a
threatened industry. The textile industry has been threatened for several years,
and Washington has done little to help. If Evans doesn't do something soon,
there won't be much left to save.South Carolinians can only hope that Sanford
will continue to recruit jobs and that Evans recognizes that his main duty is to
the unemployed Americans looking for jobs. The government shouldn't just
threaten to enforce the law. It should enforce it.