OPENING STATEMENT BY CHAIRMAN C. RICHARD D'AMATO

U.S.-China Economic & Security Review Commission Field Hearing on
"The Impact of U.S.-China Trade and Investment on Key Manufacturing Sectors"

September 23, 2004
Akron, Ohio

Good morning, and welcome to the U.S.-China Commission's first hearing since issuing our 2004 Annual Report. We begin our new report cycle by holding a hearing in the field - a practice that we initiated for our last report and found to be extremely helpful in giving us a practical perspective of what is happening to the manufacturing base of the United States. We are pleased to be here in Akron today, and I want to express my gratitude to the Akron city government for use of this facility and all the other help from the Mayor's office and others that has made this hearing possible.

This Commission was established by the U.S. Congress to investigate the national security implications of our trade and economic relationship with China. The members of the Commission were appointed by the Republican and Democratic leaders of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Congress directed us to take a broad view of national security, to include an assessment of how our wide-ranging economic relationship with China affects our basic economic health and prosperity, and hence our national security. It is this central mandate that has brought us to Ohio.

Congress is increasingly interested in determining whether our country has in place the appropriate polices to enhance American well being through our international trade and investment activities. We are keenly interested in whether the Administration is implementing those policies on behalf of our businesses, our workers and ordinary citizens. What's our track record in Ohio? And if we need new policies, what should they be? Are U.S. government policies and practices helping the people of Ohio or not?

The goal of today's hearing is to hear practical, first-hand perspectives on how U.S.-China trade and investment patterns are impacting our industrial base. U.S. manufacturers, labor unions, economists and others have increasingly identified China's manufacturing competition as a critical factor in the erosion, some say the decimation, of U.S. manufacturing capacity.

The loss of our manufacturing base also reverberates at the personal and community levels. So we are also here today to understand the human context of manufacturing job losses. We hope this hearing will help this Commission and the broader national audience understand what challenges Ohio's manufacturers and workers face, what hardships they have endured, what responses from Washington have worked to help Ohio, and what responses have failed or have yet to be tried.

With that I would like to turn over the proceedings to the co-chairs of today's hearing, my colleagues, Commissioner Michael Wessel and Commissioner June Dreyer.