ANTI DUMPING LAWS NOT THE ANSWER

Sunday, October 5, 2003, our local paper, the Greensboro News and Observer, had two very interesting stories describing the miseries of the textile industry.

Why should that concern those of us who are in or connected with the furniture industry? Because the furniture business is headed exactly the same way as the textile industry, if it has not already reached the same level or lower.

The story that dealt with the textile industry on the national level stated that the textile industry has suffered more damage than it suffered in the Great Depression of 1932.

During the Great Depression, the textile industry lost 25% of its capacity. Remember that since the Great Depression is 60 years old history, this is a finite number that you can accept as accurate.

So far in this debacle, the textile industry has already lost 30% of its capacity and this crisis is far from over.

This crisis will not be over until the industrialized nations of the world insist and force China to float its currency against the major currencies of the world so that it seeks its true value.

Present estimates are that the yuan is artificially pegged at 40% below its correct value. Floating it to its true value would be of immense benefit to not only textiles and furniture manufacturers, but also to many other industries and most of the industrialized world.

Seeking protection under the antidumping laws, as some in the textile and furniture industry are actively pursuing, is not going to resolve our problem It may give short term relief to those industries that get protection, but it will only postpone our day of reckoning.

The furniture industry needs to face the fact that of the major manufacturers seeking protection, the bulk of their customers are not the brokers on the NYSE or the top brass in General Electric, Motorola, etc., who profit from the Chinese slave labor market. The people who buy their furniture are the little people who are getting hurt through the loss of their jobs in the textile mills, the tool and die industry, the electronics industry and the many similar industries that the Chinese either are taking over today and have on their master plan to take over.

We need every one of these potential purchasers.

As Ben Franklin said, "We must all hang together or assuredly we will all hang separately."

Chinaís currency policy not only is a threat to the US manufacturing base, it is a threat to the other industrialized nations as well. Therein lies our potential support. Every nation from Mexico to the Pacific Rim is suffering from massive job losses to Chinese manufactured goods. A sincere effort on the part of our government could get the required support from these nations thus forcing the Chinese to float the yuan.

In short, this is not a furniture industries problem, it is a threat to all industrialized nations. We should be capitalizing on that fact in an effort to get world support for forcing China to float their currency.

Therein lies our salvation. Protectionism is not the solution.

Claude S. Sutton, Jr.