Scott Paul

Revive Manufacturing with Green Jobs

Dave Johnson — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 08:27:07 -0400

There is a green manufacturing revolution occurring in the world -- the rest of it, anyway -- and it is on track to create millions of jobs and trillions of dollars of new wealth. The Take Back The American Dream conference session titled "Stop Outsourcing the Dream: How America Can Revive Manufacturing in a Green Industrial Revolution" discussed how to bring a chunk of the green manufacturing revolution to the US to create badly-needed jobs.

Scott Paul of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) started by explaining we have lost 5.5 million manufacturing jobs since 2000, mostly to China, with 50,000 factories closed. For those who say we don’t need manufacturing, he explained that innovation comes from manufacturing, so we lost that, too. 90% of patents, 70% of private research and development come out of production so we have to have production or lose innovation.

Congressman Chris Murphy (D-CT ) said it’s easy to figure out what to do because we have this play out in countries that have lapped us, so we know from them what works. They identify a quickly developing manufacturing market and capture the seedlings of it before it takes full root. Renewable energy is at top of the list because it will create millions of jobs, so we need a small public subsidy to create the market demand that creates manufacturing capacity.

“As industries begin to take hold in other countries, every month we don’t play catch up is another month we’ll never get that capacity back.”

We are lacking a rather small subsidy – investment or carbon tax or cap and trade would make them immediately competitive here in US.

Leo Gerard of the United Steelworkers talked about the need for a national energy conservation initiative, retrofitting buildings, the energy grid, and a focus on domestic-content requirements in renewable energy for our military needs.

Gerard said you don’t create real wealth by flipping coupons or hamburgers, you create it by taking real things and turning them into things of value. And those things of value are turned into other things of value and all of a sudden you have a wind turbine with thousands of parts made here. You can’t have a clean economy without good jobs and can’t have good jobs without a clean economy.

Leo Hindery of the New America Foundation talked about the need for a national manufacturing policy.

We have 29 million men and women looking for a full-time job, 150,000 entering the workforce every month, that means we have to fund 22 milion jobs today, next month it is 22,150,000 then 22,300,000 the next months, etc. This can only be done by increasing manufacturing. (And by the way, he said, where Scott Paul said we lost 50,000 factories between 2000 and 2009, that number is not 58,000.)

He thinks the percent of our workforce in manufacturing to shoot for is probably 25% - well above where we are. If you look at successful countries like Germany, they have 25%. But to prove this is the number he’s working with top economists to put together studies, establish the right number so we do not establish policy and only get to 11% when we need perhaps 25%.

Video Interview: Scott Paul of AAM on China Dialogue

Dave Johnson — Mon, 24 May 2010 17:47:26 -0400

Today I was able to conduct a short webcam interview with Scott Paul, Executive Director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. The occasion is this week's Us-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue taking place in Beijing. This dialog is a series of meetings between top-level officials of both governments on a number of issues. Secretaries Geithner and Clinton are leading the US delegtation. The trade imbalance between the US and China is one of the top issues being discussed.

Scott has posted a video at the AAM manufacturethis blog, titled THE 15 NUMBERS YOU NEED TO KNOW, which discusses AAM's 15 Numbers You Need to Know before the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing next week. (Example: 2.4 million: Number of U.S. jobs lost or displaced due to U.S.-China trade imbalance, 2001-2008.)

Here is our interview with Scott Paul:

UPDATE: Early Tuesday, AAM released a statement expressing disappointment with the Obama administration for the lack of progress it made while in Beijing on trade and currency issues and calling on Congress to act.

"Beijing must understand that there will be consequences unless it revalues its currency to a flexible exchange rate that reflects the market," Paul says in the statement. "It is imperative for Congress to pass legislation that will ensure a level playing field for America's workers and businesses. We need to end China's currency manipulation sooner rather than later."

Scott will be speaking on Making It In America at the America’s Future NOW! Conference in Washington, DC, June 7-9. Click here to register for the conference.

Chamber of Commerce Sides with Foreign Embassies Against Buy American

Tula Connell — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:15:21 -0400

There they go again. Those running the show at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are attacking again the Buy American provision in the economic stimulus package.

Ignoring, once more, that Buy American makes fundamental economic sense by ensuring at least some of our taxpayer bailout money is invested in American-made productions, the Chamber is siding with foreign embassies battling the Buy American provisions. In a June 2 letter to lawmakers, Bruce Josten, the Chamber's executive vice president for government affairs, asked Congress to exclude Buy American provisions from all legislation.

More recently, the Chamber held a joint press conference June 11 with the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters to decry the Buy American provisions in the stimulus. For a trade association with "U.S." in its name, siding with foreign corporations against those in the United States is, well, you fill in the word that best describes it.

Auggie Tantillo, executive director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC), framed the Chamber's action this way, according to the Daily Labor Report (subscription required):

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is effectively suggesting that America needs to buy more Canadian to dig out of our economic hole. That position doesn't pass the U.S. economic interest laugh test.

The Chamber's anti-Buy American stance, which undermines the interests of America's workers, also isn't amusing for the millions of jobless workers in this nation.

In fact, the Chamber's false argument that Buy America provisions will start a "trade war" is a tired one. The stimulus requires that U.S. material be used in projects funded by the bill, but also states that the clause should not override U.S. international trade commitments.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative spokeswoman Deborah Mesloh said the Obama administration is committed to ensuring that the Buy America requirements in the stimulus legislation are applied in a manner that is consistent with U.S. obligations under international agreements.

Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), said the rules are necessary to boost the sagging domestic economy and should be included in other spending bills.

It is common sense that a small portion of your tax dollars in a stimulus package dedicated to stimulating the American economy be spent in America.

At the AAM blog, Steve Capozzola knocks down the Chamber's feeble arguments against the Buy American provisions.

Buy America provisions in the recent stimulus bill are both consistent with longstanding U.S. policy and adhere to America's international trade obligations.
Most other countries utilize the same domestic procurement efforts.
Furthermore, the U.S. has been a leading proponent of the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), which opens the U.S. market to foreign bids. Some of the very countries criticizing Buy America policy have made no such reciprocal efforts to open their markets.

Tantillo, whose AMTAC is founded by U.S. manufacturers, succinctly sums up the need for Buy American provisions:

The only way for the U.S. economy to climb out of recession is for people to start buying more American-made goods and services, including the U.S. government.

This is a crosspost from AFL-CIO Now blog.