LTE: Fair trade for Ohio
Akron Beacon Journal – Your editorial ''Trading in fantasy'' (July 12) rightly points out the importance of exports to Ohio's economy. But you are wrong to dismiss fair trade — that promotes American manufacturing, that invests in American workers, that ensures that our trading partners are playing by the same rules that we do — as ''fantasy.''
Gov. Ted Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher are right to demand that our trade agreements should promote American exports, not undermine them. They're right to stand up for American manufacturing against a flood of cheap imports made by our trading partners with foreign government subsidies.
We all want more trade. I was recently appointed to the President's Export Council and am working alongside Ohio businesses to double our nation's exports over the next five years. My office has hosted export seminars and small business workshops throughout the state, and we are working to improve access to credit for small and medium-sized businesses.
But we need a new set of rules for trade. If we pursue more wrong-headed trade agreements with countries that can undercut us by exploiting weak environmental standards and labor laws, or that deliberately game the system by manipulating currency to ensure their products make for cheap imports, American workers will lose out.
