Desperate to pass TPP, Obama's Administration wants to change the way trade in manufactured goods

[Elwood P Dowd]

9. Plenty of evidence this proposal is making the rounds.

From the Economic Policy Institute blog......

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On May 22, the Office of Management and Budget issued a notice for comments on a proposal to dramatically alter the way government keeps statistics on domestic industries. The proposal suggests “that factoryless goods producers (FGPs) be classified” as manufacturers.

In addition to being an oxymoron, the proposal, if adopted, would create a statistical fiction that companies that are American in name only, which outsource 100 percent of their production, assembly and services to other countries like China, will be deemed to be manufacturers. In other words a company does not have to manufacture any of its products in the United States to be considered a U.S. manufacturer.

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The proposal posted by OMB would be laughable if it didn’t have such serious implications. If adopted, the proposal would damage the credibility of much needed government statistics. It would also raise issues of transparency by making it more difficult to accurately identify a product’s manufacturing country. Most important, it would move us in the exact opposite direction that the president spoke of when he so eloquently called for ending incentives for companies to send manufacturing work to other countries.

Owen Herrnstadt serves as the Chief of Staff to the International President and Director of Trade and Globalization for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.