Trade: No surprise as USA's Teamsters "applauds House for approving crackdown on China"

It is seemingly impossible to get through to American workers that the reason their products are more expensive at the point of sale than similar products made in China has more to do with the costs of production that to a weak yuan.

A statement from the Teamsters shows just how far the political charge at China is going: " Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa today commended the House of Representatives for approving a bill to punish China for wrongful trade practices that cost the U.S. millions of jobs."

The statement goes on "

The bill would allow the Obama administration to penalize nations that undervalue their currency to make their exports cheaper. The bill passed by a wide margin, 348-79, with bipartisan support. There were 99 Republicans who voted with Democrats to approve the bill.

"The size of this vote shows Americans are furious that China is bleeding us dry," Hoffa said. "American workers are paying a steep price for China's cheating. This bill would help bring back the jobs that America lost.

"America has shut down tens of thousands of factories in the past 10 years. We make fewer computers than we did in 1975 and we don't manufacture a single cell phone. It's time to protect American manufacturing and American workers by cracking down on countries that break the world's trade rules," Hoffa said.

"The legislation is headed to the Senate, which may vote on it during the lame-duck session.

"By manipulating its currency so that it's worth 40 percent less than it should be, China can sell products more cheaply in the United States. American products are also more expensive in China. As a result, Americans spend $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on American goods.

"Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico," the statement says.

But it's a highly biased side of the story: US products have long had a reputation for poor longevity, starting with the 1950s concept of "planned obsolescence."

Then US wages - driven up in part by the Teamsters - made manufacturing in the USA an expensive option. Productivity was low - for more than a decade, US workers preferred to strike rather than produce high-quality product at production levels that were the norm in, say, Japan. And they demanded considerably higher pay for their work.

That, at the heart of it, is what's gone wrong with the US car industry. In the days - hours even - since the worst (so far) of the most recent global financial crisis, the USA still refuses to learn those lessons.

Instead, it attacks China, suggesting that China should inflate its currency so as to mitigate against its lower costs of production.

In effect, what the USA is up to is trying to require China to put in place what amount to tariffs but at the source - so avoiding the USA trying to make tariffs work by imposing them at the port of entry.

It's a sad and devious protectionist measure which is designed not to protect American factories and jobs but to allow the USA to remain uncompetitive and costly as a production centre.

And the statement from "The International Brotherhood of Teamsters" lays bare just what those promoting the bill (and who need blue collar votes in the November elections) are really after.