Did Administration Offer New Balance A Big Contract For TPP Silence?

[eridani]

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/04/15/did-administration-offer-new-balance-big-contract-tpp-silence

Last year President Obama went to Nike headquarters to promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). But Nike doesn’t make shoes in the US, and TPP would force companies like New Balance to stop making shoes here. New Balance kept quiet about this, but now says the administration offered the company a big contract in exchange for its silence. New Balance is talking now, because the contract never came through.

The Bangor Daily News has a big story this week, “New Balance claims Defense Department strung it along on military sneaker contract”:

New Balance officials say they’ve broken their silence over the Trans-Pacific Partnership because the Obama administration has failed to offer the company a chance for a contract to sell sneakers to the military.

… New Balance held its tongue about the TPP for nearly a year, he says, because federal officials told the company that if it did so, New Balance would get a shot at a military contract.

Last May’s post, “Obama To Visit Nike To Promote the TPP. Wait, NIKE? Really?”, explained what TPP means for the domestic shoe industry:

While the President visits Nike, New Balance is struggling to be able to keep some of its manufacturing in the U.S. Currently New Balance makes shoes in five factories in the U.S. Their executives say if TPP passes, lower tariffs on shoes made in places like Vietnam will force them to close their U.S. factories.

… If the President gets his way and TPP passes, the tariff on non-U.S.-made (Vietnam) shoes will end and New Balance – like so many other companies struggling to manufacture inside the U.S. – will have no choice but to end its U.S. manufacturing operations. Meanwhile Nike, already manufacturing in Vietnam and Malaysia and currently selling shoes that cost $10 to make for over $100, will gain even more of an advantage, which obviously will not be passed on to consumers. If you are able to get a certain price for a product, why reduce it?

[DemocracyDirect]

1. If you are able to get a certain price for a product, why reduce it?

Because company executives and board members have a feduciary responsibility to get the best returns for their shareholders!

This is why we need to make the rules work for the American worker.

Corporations are big money vacuums on automatic.

[Sunlei]

6. I'm not sure if a Corp even has a 'feduciary responsibility' to their shareholders.

Not at all sure about that.

[DemocracyDirect]

7. Well technically if the board and executive doesn't do what the shareholders want, they are replaced

Keep in mind that the same richest families in the world own most of the corporations.

And many of them are not even American.

[Democat]

2. Giant Corporation Bashes Obama Admin After Losing Government Contract

That's an alternate headline.

[Hoyt]

3. Sounds like NB can't meet military's requirements. Besides, NB makes majority of shoes overseas.

"The problem, according to the Department of Defense, is that none of the three New Balance shoes offered for consideration met the agency’s cost requirements and one didn’t meet durability standards.

The administration portrays the delay as quality and cost control. But New Balance sees it as foot-dragging, and as reason enough to revive its fight against the Trans-Pacific Partnership."

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/04/11/new-balance-says-obama-administration-reneged-deal-involving-military-business/zUdUWa23ZWv53D5a9AjNII/story.html

[Recursion]

4. "TPP would force companies like New Balance to stop making shoes here."

Eh?

[Sunlei]

5. So are those '200 employees' free citizens or prison workers? and nothing is foreign made?

How much was/is the tariff on sneakers?

And I think $10 to make in Asian pacific countries sounds high, I bet it's more like $1 a pair to make and ship to USA and the rest is profit. A lot of profit on some molded plastics and a bit of cloth.

[Hoyt]

9. If it were all "profit," one of the many makers of comparable shoes would corner the market by

selling theirs at $20.

[Sunlei]

10. 'everyday' shoes and clothes, imo are a very price competitive type of global trade.

I can understand why some American shoe & clothing 'Corps' would want the old trade tariffs to stay to prevent more sales competition.

But when you're a consumer, it's great to search sneakers and have plenty to choose from.

New Balance needs to use the internet more aggressively if they want a piece of the action.

[DemocracyDirect]

8. I want to reiterate this again, because I think its a point lost on most people.

Most of these corporations are primarily owned by the same richest families in the world.

And not all of them are American.

Sovereignty?

[Sunlei]

11. what does "sovereignty?" have to do with a businesses 'owner'. Everyone is free to start their own?

sov·er·eign·ty


/ˈsäv(ə rən(t)ē/


noun

noun: sovereignty




supreme power or authority.
"how can we hope to wrest sovereignty away from the oligarchy and back to the people?"


synonyms: jurisdiction, rule, supremacy, dominion, power, ascendancy, suzerainty, hegemony, domination, authority, control, influence
"their sovereignty over the islands"




•the authority of a state to govern itself or another state.
"national sovereignty"


synonyms: autonomy, independence, self-government, self-rule, home rule, self-determination, freedom
"the colony demanded full sovereignty"




•a self-governing state.
plural noun: sovereignties