[Torie]

Well what is "level" is in the eye of the beholder. That typically is an excuse for protectionism. Textiles per force cannot be made in the US economically. It is low skilled and labor intensive.

[AntiGuv]

We have a free-floating currency; China has a pegged currency. That is not level, even by China's own admission.

[lame_internet_name]

We have to have low skill jobs in this country just as much as we need high skill jobs. It is a fact of life that not all people are suited for high skill labor but they need an honest way to earn a living just as much as anybody else. There simply has to be a full spectrum of jobs in this country or we will soon become just another arrogant footnote in history.

[snowsislander]

Well what is "level" is in the eye of the beholder. That typically is an excuse for protectionism. Textiles per force cannot be made in the US economically. It is low skilled and labor intensive.

That may be true for apparel, but the textile industry also encompasses making cloth, and the modern industry these days to make cloth is anything but "low skilled and labor intensive". The machinery to make cloth is generally made in Japan or Europe, and is expensive. (I just did a quick Google search, and it looks like the Indian companies are also trying to move into the business of selling this machinery too. Not surprising I guess since India is also a major textile manufacturer. I also saw some Chinese gear, but my assumption would be that those machines are just a crude, low-priced rip-off.)

Japan, which has comparable pay scales to the U.S. is still doing a good business making high quality cloth, and I think we can also. We even have a significant advantage over Japan in that we produce locally much of the inputs that they must import to produce textiles.