Obama administration proposes to disguise offshoring of US manufacturing by rebranding firms that relocate production as ‘factoryless goods’ manufacturers. The suggestion met strong rejection as there are more than 26,000 people nationwide having submitted comments opposing such a ruthless intention. Not only would this proposal deceptively deflate the US manufacturing trade deficit but also falsely increase the reported number of US manufacturing jobs as white-collar employees in firms like Apple which now will be rebranded as “factoryless goods producers” and would suddenly be counted as “manufacturing” workers. This shift also would create a false increase in US manufacturing wages and output.
“Reclassifying jobs that have been and continue to be shipped overseas under the euphemism ‘factoryless goods’ is an insult to the citizens of the United States who want real manufacturing jobs, and know that the TPP and other NAFTA-style trade deals are not in our best interest,” included one of the comments. The members of the US House of Representatives wrote to the Michael Froman, US Trade Representative (USTR), demanding that he should immediately begin to provide Congress with accurate US trade data.
