Imposing Chinese tariffs would cut deficit

4/20/2013

Why have tariffs on imports from China not been proposed as a significant part of the budget solution (“Little reform in Obama’s budget,” op-ed column, April 16)?

Everyone is excited that Chrysler has a Jeep assembly plant in Toledo, but in the 1970s through the early 1980s there were thousands of other manufacturing jobs in northwest Ohio. These jobs went off shore, to countries with unfair trade practices.

I was one of Dana Corp.’s international manufacturing engineers and later Dana Holding Corp.’s global director of supplier development. I retired in 2009 after 37 years with the company.

Chinese companies receive energy and material subsidies from their government in many forms. Many do not have retirement or health-care programs for their employees. Nor does China have anything near the equivalent of the Social Security and Medicare benefits that we enjoy.

The government cannot tax the rich enough to solve the deficit problem. Trade revenue and revisions of the tax code to encourage domestic capital investment that creates good-paying jobs are the only way this floundering economy can have a sustainable recovery.

VINCENT MORGILLO

Northwood