Posted on 01/22/2002 7:18:58 PM PST by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
Excerpt from story entitled: "Feeling the pinch" in the January 20, 2002 issue of the Houston Chronicle by Jenalia Moreno (Mexico City Bureau)
...Perez, like the thousands of other shoemakers who toil quietly behind the doorways of what seems like every home in this city, knows why sales slumped. Talk about how economic conditions across the world have clobbered their century-old industry is not limited to those with degrees in economics.
Adding to that is the flood of contraband shoes imported from China that evade import limits. While the Chinese can ship shoes to Mexico, they must pay sky-high tariffs. Many shoes made in China are smuggled into Mexico, meaning lower tariffs or none at all.
And the problem will worsen as tariffs on Chinese shoes will decrease now that China is a member of the World Trade Organization. ... Mexico simply cannot compete with cheap Chinese shoes. They cost $7 on the streets of Mexico, while Mexican-made shoes cost twice as much.
...Over the summer, local police raided shoe stores in Leon and seized all the Chinese shoes they found. Now it's almost impossible to find shoes labeled "Made in China" in Leon, but relatively easy to find them in any other Mexican city.
... Business is so bad that Morales is thinking of giving up his trade. "Maybe it's better if I go to El Norte," Morales said as he removed the foot molds from men's shoes. He knows he cannot compete with cheap Chinese shoes, especially in a market like Mexico, where 40 percent of the population is impoverished. His own sister bought Chinese shoes and sold them for a profit.
The Great Wall of China kept out invaders for hundreds of years. Finally the wall was breached. Invaders did not go over the wall, through the wall, or under the wall. They simply bribed the gatekeepers. Corruption here and everywhere else is the beginning of the end. How stupid.
Hmmm...
It's starting to sink in that Red China having communist power over its labor pool, and thus being able to fix the world price for [fill in the _____] ... is maybe not a good thing after all.
Especially with the Red Chinese self-awareness on this and their exploiting the situation with regard to labor pools around the world; they cannot control all such pools directtly, so they'll control them indirectly..
I really just can't wait to see the high and mighty American labor union bosses go lecture the Red Chinese --- the undue campaign contributors to the Democrat Party.
Same Democrat Party which Big Labor gets all watery-eyed about come election time.
Expect more water.
---max
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