As a result, U.S. domestic manufacturing only captured 50.7 percent of growth in demand for Durable Goods and a paltry 38.8 percent of growth in demand for Non-Durable Goods since 1993. With some growth in exports – including bounce-back outsourcing to Mexico – U.S. domestic production growth covered less than half of domestic demand growth.
With U.S. production of manufactured goods growing slower than U.S. demand, it is clear U.S. producers have lost significant market share.
This serious fact is undoubtedly is having a substantial negative impact on the rehiring of workers laid off during the recession of 2001.
The loss of market share also has hurt capital investment in manufacturing. Instead of seeing an industrial investment boom as the economy has grown, capital investment in U.S. manufacturing has dropped by over 25 percent in the past five years, plummeting from a high of nearly $154.5 billion in 2000 to just over $115 billion in 2004 (the last year for which data is available) according to the U.S. Census Bureau's Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM).
The loss of market share, millions of jobs, and billions in capital investment are a predictable outcome of a U.S. trade policy that gives significant advantages to foreign producers at the expense of domestic manufacturers.
Foreign producers like those in China benefit from virtually closed markets in key sectors and from subsidies like value-added-tax (VAT) rebates and currency manipulation.
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American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition
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