Candidate says Chinese aim to neutralize U.S. trade policy

Representative Duncan Hunter (R-California), a U.S. 2008 presidential candidate, said in a recent interview with Manufacturing & Technology News that "for practical purposes" U.S. multinationals have become Chinese corporations, and added that U.S. trade policies have decimated small and medium-sized domestic manufacturers. "I would junk NAFTA and CAFTA. But let's do one thing at a time. Number one, allow our businesses that are being damaged by the illegal subsidy, which is known as (China's) currency devaluation, to go after the cheating. Bring the Chinese to the table and make them understand that we are not going to allow them to have access to the American market unless they do it under the rules," Hunter said.
Hunter also said that the U.S. has acquiesced to cheating and that a dispute in the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) was a manifestation of that. "The big guys [the multinational members of the National Association of Manufacturers] said, essentially, 'That we do not mind the one-way street because we are on the other end of the street. We are Chinese corporations for practical purposes.' " Hunter said. "That is the essence of what their conversation was to the domestic manufacturers, and hence the split," Hunter said.
The Chinese perceive that the United States has been fractured in its trade policy, caused by our multinationals which now have a substantial interest in China, Hunter said. He added that the Chinese are using the multinationals to neutralize American trade policy and have represent interests other than those of domestic manufacturing.