As editor of All the Plastics News readers who think Chinese goods should be taxed, banned or regulated might want to consider moving to Palm Bay, Fla., where Mayor John Mazziotti has introduced an ordinance that would prohibit the city from buying made-in-China products.
"We are losing jobs left and right to them," Mazziotti told Florida Today. Concern about quality and safety of Chinese-made products prompted the move.
The proposed ordinance reads that the city will take the action because Chinese products hurt the American economy, and because "there is a complete lack of environmental, health and safety standards in product manufacturing in China."The ordinance would prevent the city from buying any items costing more than $50 that are manufactured or assembled in China or that contain more than 50 percent components from China. Exceptions are for emergency purchases, if the item is not available otherwise or if the cost is more than 150 percent higher.
Are there still made-in-America alternatives for most products that cities buy? Palm Bay will soon find out.
Comments (3)
Palm Bay ( drink a little in Mandarin Chinese )to Palm Bay, Florida. Why not include all foreign countries? Why just China? How about Mexico or Canada? I know many Chinese business men who are moving their manufacturing locations to Vietnam or Malaysia because the labor is cheaper. If Africa can ever get a stable environment they will be the next place of cheap labor. Get a grip on world economics! When you do, it will be galm bay ( drink all in Mandarin Chinese) to Palm Bay.
Posted by Alan Sell | October 6, 2007 5:19 PM
Posted on October 6, 2007 17:19
I completely agree with Mayor Mazziotti. The greed of our corporate masters has cost us our manufacturing base and the millions of good paying jobs that went with them. Virtually everything that is sold in any big box store is made in China - WalMart, Beall's, Belk's, Target, K-Mart ad-nauseum. Congress can't pass legislation dealing with junk products coming from China because the ChiComms threatened to dump trillions of dollars of US treasury bonds. We can't even manufacture enough small arms ammunition with which to defend this country!
When we must beg the necessities of daily ife from the enemy we become his slave.
"Free Trade"
Posted by Roger | October 7, 2007 6:01 PM
Posted on October 7, 2007 18:01
Amazing how people overreact to politicians with zero economic credentials who posture just to pick up votes! Mayor Mazziotti ought to be sent back to school to learn something about how business works (the same for his supporters who are almost as uninformed). Reading Alan Reynold's year-old book, "Income and Wealth," might be almost as good -- it shows (from official statistics) that manufacturing jobs have been disappearing all over the world for the past 10 years, due to a continuing productivity surge that affects nearly every country -- yes, China has bucked the trend in the past four years, but that is after losing nearly one-fifth of their manufactuing jobs, and they are still only up to 1998 levels. Let's stay free to choose for ourselves what we will buy, please? We don't need Big Brother to tell us.
Posted by Frank | October 8, 2007 3:35 PM
Posted on October 8, 2007 15:35