OrangeSoul Posted May 21, 2005 Share Posted May 21, 2005 WASHINGTON (AFP) - Need a plastic White House? How about an "I love Washington" sweatshirt or a Stars and Stripes for the car? Well, thanks to communist China, you won't break the bank. As Washington simmers over trade and currency spats with Beijing -- policymakers need not stray far to test America's addiction to the fruits of China's great economic leap forward. Little more than a flick of a patriotic frisbee from the White House is a cornucopia of tourist kitsch, at knockdown prices courtesy of low-wage workers halfway across the globe. Tourists can choose a "President of the United States" baseball cap, with a pirated official seal across the front -- good value at 12 dollars. Or plump for a pewter-style handheld statue of Abe Lincoln or a model of the US Capitol for eight dollars. Even more ironic is the seven buck scene of one of the quintessential moments of American mythology, the raising of the US flag by marines at the World War II battle of Iwo Jima. In one of the most patriotic nations on earth, each of these pieces bears a "Made in China" sticker on its base. And given that according to latest statistics, Washington hosted 16.4 million domestic visitors in 2003 compared with only 0.8 million foreigners -- most of them are being snapped up by Americans. Only a few garments have a "Made in the USA" label, and some of those were woven in the Dominican Republic with American material. Hardly anyone is priced out of the market: a dishevelled homeless man patrols the streets in an " FBI" shirt, made in Vietnam, and a matching woolly hat. Happy with the flow of affordable goods, many Americans are relaxed over their point of origin. Marilyn Beatty, from Northern Virginia, says her out-of-town visitors love the tourist stalls dotted around downtown Washington. "I use them a lot, a real lot, I just like that it's cheap," she shrugged, when asked whether she is concerned that most stalls hold goods from China, Vietnam, Taiwan or the Dominican Republic. "A lot of the stuff in Wal-Mart and Target comes from China," she said, referring to cut price megastores, which hawk everything from baby clothes to baseball bats and books to barbecues. Judging by crammed store aisles at weekends, half of America is in on this Faustian pact. Customers have saved billions of dollars and pumped up consumption over the last decade, fuelling growth, creating retail jobs and empowering a commerce lobby, which shepherded trade pacts with Vietnam and China through Congress. That's little compensation though for a production line worker in Detroit or a textiles laborer in South Carolina whose jobs migrated offshore. US textile firms, which have already declined to 600,000 employees, could stand to lose another half million jobs following the removal of a worldwide textile quota system this year, union officials say. US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez Tuesday introduced new safeguards on four new categories of Chinese textile exports permitted under World Trade Organisation rules. But right outside the windows of his Commerce Department, tourists leafed through piles of Chinese, and Asian-made shirts, on a stall that also features "Made in China" Saddam Hussein playing cards. And days after Washington rebuked China for a "highly distortionary" currency system, tourists could celebrate with a 100-dollar-bill mug, fired in Chinese kilns priced four dollars. On Pennsylvania Avenue, just down from the White House, China is beating America with its own flag, if not its own game, at a store called Political Americana. A pile of fabric Stars and Stripes in bags emblazoned with a sticker "Made in China" is by the door. "It is ironic that at a time when the domestic industry is being destroyed in the United States, people are buying these flags made in China," Mark Levinson, chief Economist of the Union of Needletrade and Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) told AFP. Controversy also erupted when it emerged that some yellow ribbon car magnets honoring US troops in Iraq were also made in China. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...na_050520143011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzla Veteran Posted May 21, 2005 Veteran Share Posted May 21, 2005 So now people are whinging because goods are cheaper when imported? Well that's tough, if people bought the expensive "Made in the USA" stuff then there wouldn't be a need to import. Consumers speak the loudest and they've spoken, everyone else should just shut up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreAming in DigITal Posted May 21, 2005 Share Posted May 21, 2005 So now people are whinging because goods are cheaper when imported? Well that's tough, if people bought the expensive "Made in the USA" stuff then there wouldn't be a need to import. Consumers speak the loudest and they've spoken, everyone else should just shut up. 585952416[/snapback] yep :yes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curme Posted May 21, 2005 Share Posted May 21, 2005 Remeber when the US Army switched to black berets? The first batch all had "Made in China" labels in them. There was a big stink, so they switched to berets made in the USA. :rofl: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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