Jobs in U.S. auto parts industry at risk due to subsidized and unfairly traded Chinese auto parts

[Bill USA]

Economic Policy Institute

The motor-vehicle manufacturing sector is the second-largest employer among all U.S. manufacturing industries, and auto parts and tires contribute the most direct jobs (nearly two-thirds or more) to the motor-vehicle sector.1 Throughout all 50 states, there are 1.6 million jobs directly or indirectly supported by auto-parts and tire manufacturing (the “auto-parts industry”).

Although U.S. automakers have enjoyed a strong turnaround since the government helped restructure General Motors and Chrysler in 2009—with sales up 29.1 percent—that has not translated into a turnaround for the U.S. auto-parts industry, as indicated by the best-available measure of concern to American workers: jobs.2 Since the deepest point of the recession in 2009, the U.S. auto-parts industry has regained only 60,000 jobs, an increase of 13.8 percent (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2011). This gain is nowhere near what is needed to erase years of losses: The United States lost more than 400,000 direct jobs in auto parts between November 2000 and November 2011.

Auto sales since the depths of the recession have increased more than twice as fast as employment in auto parts in part because of the rapid growth in auto parts imported from China—the fastest-growing source of U.S. auto-parts imports.

[font color="red" size="3"]Chinese auto-parts exports increased more than 900 percent from 2000 to 2010, largely because the Chinese central and local governments heavily subsidize the country’s auto-parts industry; they provided $27.5 billion in subsidies between 2001 and 2010 (Haley 2012). Many of these subsidies are prohibited by the World trade Organization (Stewart, et al.2012). Furthermore, makers of auto parts in China benefit from China’s illegal currency manipulation, which reduces the cost of Chinese auto parts by an additional 25 to 30 percent (Scott 2011b, 2–3). Other Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea, also manipulate their currencies and have used other unfair trade policies to illegally promote sales of auto parts. In addition, Japan is one of the most closed markets in the world to auto parts from the United States due to the influence of its Kieretsu groups of auto suppliers, interlocking networks of suppliers affiliated with each of the major Japanese auto assemblers.[/font]
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This really warrants a letter/email to Congressmen and POTUS.

[PuffedMica]

1. China has little enforcement of environmental regulations

Part of China's low prices come at the expense of environmental distruction.

[cbrer]

2. Someone in America

Is making some serious coin behind all this. That is the capitalist way. That is what all these rich poster children are so admired for. Consequences, economies, futures, environments, be damned.