Letter from AlphaBroder and SanMar

[mimosatexas]

This is Trump's America. Of course I'm sure his supporters will figure out some way of blaming this on anyone else or downplay the significance to middle and lower class Americans. The truth is this stuff was obvious and this is only the beginning. Hope you're ready...

Edit:  Just to add, The Ink Kitchen hit the nail on the head: "It would be great to encourage US manufacturing, but it is absolutely insane to think that the garment industry is going to come back here in force and that millions of Americans are going to want to work at sewing garments."

This is exactly what every economist and layman with a basic understanding of globalization has been saying for a long time.  You can choose to put your head in the sand and believe the Republican "alternative facts" about it, but that isn't actually going to help anything.

[ScreenFoo]

If anyone has an idea of how to compete against $0.13/hr wages I'm all ears. Anyone not involved in manufacturing
and particularly textiles can't seem to grasp that concept.

Well, of course they do, that's why they pitched it.

Once that 20 percent kicks in, we'll be effectively competing with $0.156/hr wages. 

Now, as far as I can tell, it looks like a ridiculous idea on paper, but not unusually so considering the source.

[UltraSeps]

This "proposed" policy will help some, yet hurt many.  There needs to be a bit of give-and-take built into the language and not be an absolute, across-the-board memorandum.  I remember back in the early 90's paying about $36/dz. for white FOL Lofteez shirts.  We may me looking at these levels yet again.

[kingscreen]

US manufacturing as this country once knew is not coming back.  Ever.  And to believe so is disillusion.
Verbiage such as coming (or not coming) "back" is probably confusing to most.  As this yields a theory that it is away somewhere else.  Which isn't entirely true.  The fact is, robots replace more jobs than trade policies ever have or will.

Here's a good read on the topic.
https://www.ft.com/content/dec677c0-b7e6-11e6-ba85-95d1533d9a62

Of course, we do get a bit off topic once the conversation goes this route. 
This proposed tax will harm the US.  And especially our industry.

[3Deep]

Ok we all knew this was coming this is Trump's way of running the country like a business and we all know his record on some of his business.  Someone mention this 20% tax on imports might even the playing field for US manufacturers, I doubt it, the price of goods will be the same across the board.  Now if you liked American made products before, you all ready paid a higher price, so people will now pay that price for import items plus the import items might still come in a little cheaper because of labor cost, do all the math you want I think Trump's plan is going to hurt more than help.

[aauusa]

 here is my take on it from my business POV.    We make custom dye sub sport uniforms(manufactured) here in the USA.  I know what manufacturing in the USA never heard of it.   in 2 different scenarios we want the tariffs.   our competitor company A and B.  Company A has his company based out of Mission Texas.  He makes his product across the border(at below USA wage) then brings them to the USA to sell to USA customers at  X price.  Company B(garage) has his company based out of Birmingham AL.  He has his product made in China (below USA wage) and has his product shipped to the USA to sell to his USA customer at the same X price as company A.  Now neither A nor B knows each other and price X is relatively the same.

Now me as a USA company that is manufacturing a USA made product and is selling it to a USA customer has to compete with price X because majority of customers decide based on price.  We do compete at that price and we are very competitive as well.  But it would be nice if the playing field was even.  And those USA companies which decide to make there product outside the USA then to bring it back in to sell  them  to a USA consumer should be required to have some tariffs as they are limiting the USA manufactures.

So yes tax or raise tariffs whatever you want to call it.  Any USA company which exports production of a product just to bring it back in the USA to sell should IMO be taxed for it.

And yes I am for USA made products.  It is my preference.  But just because I prefer USA made products does not imply that I hate Mexico, china, nor other countries.  When did having pride in oneself and country equate to hate towards others.

so will his ideas on tariffs work or not well it remains to be seen.  but remember there are others with just as respectable POV as yourself.  and it is the respect for others ideas which is what allows us to coexist.

[alan802]

There is a good article in The Economist that will clear up some of the misinformation or lies (hard to tell an innocent mistake and a legitimate attempt at misleading to further the agenda) about this.  I personally don't want to see tariffs like this but at the same time I don't think it will be something that hurts us as bad as many other things have the last 10 years.  It's really something that boils down to partisan hackery.  If your guy does it it's fine, if the other guy does it he's a Nazi...or something like that right?...

[mk162]

Well it's obvious that everybody I don't like politically is a Nazi...and probably the spawn of Hitler himself.

[Northland]

US manufacturing as this country once knew is not coming back.  Ever.  And to believe so is disillusion.
Verbiage such as coming (or not coming) "back" is probably confusing to most.  As this yields a theory that it is away somewhere else.  Which isn't entirely true.  The fact is, robots replace more jobs than trade policies ever have or will.

Investment in workers (be it either Private, State or Federal funded) is what forms the bedrock of manufacturing and construction. What's needed are employees with a higher level of skills that mates to the needs of the economy. If any politician wants to create jobs, they should start with worker training. It's the old "build it and they will come" premise.
Also, as the baby-boomer generation retires... there will be a large number of good paying jobs that need to be filled by workers with those skills.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/pascalemmanuelgobry/2013/05/07/the-jobs-of-the-future-dont-require-a-college-degree/#40bbdfeb118a

And by the way, Trumps promise to save the coal industry is not realistic in a world where fracked gas is not only cheaper, but cleaner.

[mk162]

You contradicted yourself there.

So you're saying that if Trump trained them in coal mining, then those jobs would suddenly be needed?

Mike Rowe and Norm Abrams(2 of the 3 people I would want to have dinner with, the 3rd being Jesus) had an article about training for the future in This Old House.  Many of the jobs are for skilled tradesmen.  No amount of free job training for that will attract people to those fields when we are pushing kids into 4 year colleges.  A lot of the kids going into college would make more than double what they do with a degree if they went into a field like plumbing or electrical.  Those are becoming the jobs of the future because there aren't enough people to fill those jobs.

Tariffs won't solve this problem, and I frankly think they are a bad idea.  I would rather see rewards for good behavior than punishment for bad.  Hillary had the same thing in one of her ads about punishing companies that send jobs oversees and it made my skin crawl.  Same thing with the Donald.  I don't like it.

[Gilligan]

This will change 20x over before it happens. I wish more shirts were made here but know it will never happen again.

A 20% increase is like $.35 to most of us on a shirt?

I just raised my prices $1 to cover USPS increases and it will cover me on any price increases for this.

It is what it is. Taxation is theft.

Bulldog... If they do this, then they are fleecing us.  Because that 20% is based on the good coming in at $1.75... we all know that isn't what Sanmar is paying for their shirts.  SO in reality a TRUE 20% increase should be less than that... maybe less than .20 cents.  I really have no idea what Sanmar pays for the goods coming in.

This is assuming everything stays on the up and up on the bill of laden coming across the border... anyone that has bought something from China knows that those numbers are often futzed a little bit here and there.

No, I don't doubt for a second that they won't capitalize on it and make it LOOK like they couldn't help but make more money on us due to this "20% increase"... because that's just what every industry has ever done when legislation was passed that allowed them to make it look like they had no choice but to increase prices and point the finger at someone else.

Hell... my prices will essentially do the same thing since my markup is based on my COGs... so my customer will pay an extra 30% vs the 20% and I will blame it on the tariff as well.

[tpitman]

" A lot of the kids going into college would make more than double what they do with a degree if they went into a field like plumbing or electrical".
College is overrated unless you're in math or the sciences, or going into education, and then only if you can keep your head straight while sorting through the social crap infecting higher education. Pushing everyone to college will make a college education even more worthless when standards are lowered to accommodate "everyone". Look at high schools now. States bend over backwards to mask the shortcomings of too many students who simply haven't the aptitude for the work.
Plumbing and electrical aren't glamorous. Neither is teaching. College is 17 to 26 year-olds wrapped up in romantic notions of being socially smarter and more poltically sophisticated than their parents or the schlubs who took the AC/Heating courses at my high school and were in the A/V Club. Don't ask me how I know. Three semesters and a summer with one single teacher taught me what I needed, which I found out about two years later going through the motions. At least when I graduated I didn't owe any money.
Speaking of plumbing, I worked at a software company in the late 70s in the publications division. The head of HR was a woman who'd been married to a plumber whose trade afforded them a very nice house in the swankest neighborhood in the county at the time. She divorced him because she was embarassed of what he did when hanging around the swells in our company.
JMHO

[Gilligan]

This "proposed" policy will help some, yet hurt many.  There needs to be a bit of give-and-take built into the language and not be an absolute, across-the-board memorandum.  I remember back in the early 90's paying about $36/dz. for white FOL Lofteez shirts.  We may me looking at these levels yet again.

Back before NAFTA, FoL had several factories in this area.  People had great jobs... hell, they had great jobs even by today's standards!

My understanding is the COGs actually went UP from FoL after NAFTA passed.

Even if that information is incorrect, I'm certain the price did not reflect a $12-$15/hour rate to .50 cents a day or whatever they were paying in Mexico!

All of this stuff is a shell game!

[3Deep]

Now I always thought of college as a waste of time for many people, but now let me ask you who was college meant for?

[Northland]

You contradicted yourself there.
So you're saying that if Trump trained them in coal mining, then those jobs would suddenly be needed?

That's not what I said at all..... I said "employees need a higher level of skills that mate to the needs of the economy".
There's no bright future for coal.