Labor & Employment Law

Level the Playing Field in Trade Policy

By James Parks

Current U.S. trade policies encourage corporations to move production off our shores to low-wage countries that do not enforce workplace and environmental laws. This is good for multinational businesses and investors but bad for workers and communities, as pointed out by Stan Sorscher, legislative representative for the Society for Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA)/IFPTE Local 2001.

Writing at Huffington Post, Sorscher says to level the playing field, the United States should set rules that will

encourage more investment in America, and neutralize the flow of new investment offshore.

The nation also needs to set non-economic principles and rules that go beyond the bottom line. For example, U.S. corporations are not allowed to make goods in sweatshops. It’s only fair, he says, that we level the playing field by insisting on sweat-free goods when selling in our domestic market.

If domestic manufacturers are responsible and play by rules that reflect our values, then at the very least, we should protect those local businesses from being undercut by foreign producers working to lower standards.

Check out Sorscher?s full column, ?Level the Playing Field in Trade Policy,? here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on July 19, 2010 (boomark / email).