Made in North America

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHqUipinDyw&feature=related

 

Well, I'm a good old American Factory worker. Ever eat anything from McDonald's, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, etc with cheese on it. You're welcome!

 

I'm reading this on my iPhone on which is printed "Designed by Apple in California Assembled in China" gotta hand it to Apple's marketing!

 

Good video. I'm surprised. It must be the only James Brown video I can watch....

 

You must have I Feel Good feeling.

 

I was feeding my News fetish, since I don't believe our Canadian News media very much anymore (TV and Print controlled by 3 families in all major cities, and the Government across Canada).

I found an article reporting that the US won a Tarrif dispute with China about Tires. Seems the Chinese were underpricing against US made tires, so the US imposed a 35% tarrif.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11984940

In that same piece is another item, where Chinese screws were being protested by the European Union's countries. The EU lost that one, because China had just barely met the Anti-Dumping rules (Price Threshold).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11909049

So I went to the World Trade Organization's website to see who the sharks are in this new Global Marketplace world. This website is as complex as the UN website.:banghead3: Anyway, I found a fairly well organized Trade Disputes page. Lots of countries trying to scrounge extra taxes (tarrifs) to pay their bills/debts. And lots of countries defending their aggressive pricing for their companies' goods.
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/dispu_e.htm#news

This is the WTO main page:
http://www.wto.org/

EDIT: This page lists the disputes by country - good guy, bad guy, intervener/witness:
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/dispu_by_country_e.htm

Since cars are the main vein of our North American economies, and this Global Marketplace fad has lots of fans and enemies, as well as unemployed victims, I thought some of us might find it useful when planning what to buy and from whom.

Can you imagine how many industries depend on the fact that we drive? Radio Stations and now WiFi Radio, fuel, insurance, adjusters, automotive parts and repairs of course, but so many unrelated industries would just collapse. We'd all be living in any place except suburbia. No more Drive-Thru restaurants, laundry, banking. Paving would go for crap. Lawnmowing. We'd almost look like a major city in a developing country. Just vertical slums, dust and factory pollution. Ain't the Global Marketplace great?!?! (Not a question.):banghead3:

I wonder if any study has been done to do a Food-Chain tree showing the major products that could shatter a big a chunk of the world economies and match it to individual National economies. You'd soon find out how to hurt the 'other' guy's bread and butter, as well as how to help your own country's progress. I guess China has one.

Anyway that WTO Dispute page might help foretell which companies are good to work for and not, when the dust settles.

 

Good stuff Norm.

I saw the tire thing this morning. It really annoys me so much that the US Gov't buys so much from China. Certainly they try to get the best bang for the buck but they should at least attempt to buy at home.

A whole lot of industry has gone to China for manufacturing to avoid the EPA and compliance of environmental laws. Most buisness profit is in the range of 5-7%. To keep that margin they've had to manufacture elsewhere. India and China are probably the worst polluted areas of the world. Remember the Olympics where China banned all traffic and shut down factories to clear the air somewhat?

The problem is really us the consumer. I have to get a new windshield for the Ranger. I found a place local that will do it for $185. I haven't checked as to where it's made yet. But I will. I'll need tires soon and I will be checking.

 

That Disputes by country list has a neat feature. You just move over the DSxxx number and get a yellow brief note. Now if I was young and dumb and looking for a business opportunity in manufacturing, I'd be doing my longterm marketing plan with a lot of 'intelligence' from that page.

Chinese companies are just doing business, knowing they can eat our lunch. But North American companies are just dumb to not use our own advanced tech folks to beat the emissions into submission, here, instead of exporting them. The winds still blow the crap back over our skies anyway, and into our water aquifers. We'd make cleaner products, and recover our market shares, with bragging rights.

Industry emissions count for 25%. Farming 23%, Urbana lifestyle 24%, Mining - Forestry - Oil/Gas are another 24%. But throw the dollars generated by our factories, back in the old days, and they were the golden goose that led the world. Now they flew away for a quick, cheap, buck, instead of mapping out their advantages for staying home. Even the EPA and our own NRC were handing out gobs of billions to clean up industrial emissions, and they walked away. Now there's no big handouts, and no efficient factories.

Probably why Ford succeeded to avoid bailout dollars. They were a Vertical Integrated manufacturer, so they knew what to clean up and got tax discounts and credits. They could finance car sales internally, whereas GM and Chrysler were using a 3rd party and had to give them higher percentages of their companies.

 

Speaking of Windshields... My last run to the junkyard to cut out the Capri Tunnel, I noticed a newer Ford windshield that had delaminated. Huge shards of glass breaking off. Safety glass usually shatters into small pieces so that passengers aren't guillotined in an accident. I don't know where that one came from, but it sure didn't look like something a North American car should have. Check for the SAE certification on the windshield label. Usually sandblasted near the Mfr's logo.

 

The rules around "Made In Canada" always boggled my mind. I used to work for a security products manufacturer. Our primary line of products were manufactured in Shanghai and were shipped to us already in our branded packaging. Because our assembly staff opened the boxes to put the installation instructions in there we would then put a Made In Canada label on the outside. In some cases we would then ship it to our U.S. office where it wouldn't surprise me if a Made In U.S.A. label got put on the box.

 

Made in America

The US FTC describes "made in America" as 70% content and 70% labor sourced in the US.