COMMENTARY ON NAFTA : Speaking for Medical Manufacturers, Pact Is the Best Medicine : What do you think will happen when the end of tariffs means a 20% price cut that foreign competitors can’t match?
Why is the North American Free Trade Agreement worthy of Orange County’s support? Because it is absolutely in our best interest. Your job and that of many other Orange County employees may very well depend on its approval by Congress.
To put it in more easily understood and correct terms: It’s jobs, jobs, jobs.
If you think I am exaggerating, guess again. Don’t believe for a minute all of that hot air being blown by political opportunists and others with their own agendas and axes to grind.
That “giant sucking sound” of jobs heading south that some so fondly proclaim will occur if NAFTA goes into effect, is not going to happen. That’s especially true for the approximately 600 to 800 medical manufacturers in Orange County whose activities I closely monitor. For them, it will be the sound of Federal Express delivering shipments of new medical products whooshing south to fill tons of orders from eager Mexican buyers who love our products and can’t buy enough of them fast enough. Canadian buyers, albeit to a lesser extent, will also be increasing their purchases of U.S.-manufactured biomedical products.
Six months ago I was a typically undecided, uninvolved small-business owner who questioned whether NAFTA, given flaws that historically exist in treaties between nations, should be approved.
Given my concerns about its local impact and the jobs of my many friends and colleagues in the local biomedical industry, I remained open-minded and reserved judgment until I found the facts, studied them and reached what I feel is an independent, unbiased and inescapable conclusion: We all have a responsibility to support a treaty that will help prevent future job layoffs in Orange County and create a substantial long-term net gain in jobs among biomedical manufacturers and others here.
I am not exaggerating. The basic facts are clear.
U.S. medical manufacturers control nearly half of the Mexican market with 49% of all medical product sales there. With lowered tariffs brought by NAFTA, there can only be one inescapable conclusion: U.S.--and especially Orange County--biomedical manufacturers will increase their market share in Mexico, at the expense of Japanese and European competitors.
Orange County has become one of, if not the leading, biomedical manufacturing hubs in the world--a position that will be at risk without NAFTA.
With NAFTA, U.S. and Orange County medical manufacturers will finally not only have a level playing field in Canada, Mexico and the United States, but it will unquestionably be tipped heavily against all other countries.
In basic terms, what do you think will happen to sales when, because tariffs are ended, you slash your prices by up to 20%--without affecting quality--and your foreign competitors can’t match your price cuts? Doesn’t it stand to reason that your sales will skyrocket and you will be able to cancel layoffs of key employees, or in all probability, hire new ones? When Mexico lowered tariff barriers five years ago, California’s revenue from all exports to Mexico tripled.
For biomedical manufacturers, especially in Orange County, NAFTA is so lopsided in the United States’ favor that it is a wonder that more Canadian and Mexican firms don’t oppose it.
A major portion of the increased sales inevitably will come at the expense of Canadian and Mexican medical manufacturers, but those countries are so convinced of the overall need for NAFTA, there is a consensus of support regardless.
Speaking of support, it seems that local chambers of commerce and other pro-business groups are heavily favoring NAFTA. These are the business leaders--your neighbors, bosses and colleagues--who in my book, really know about job creation and increased sales that NAFTA will bring.
Even Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kansas)--as much of an anti-Clintonite as anyone might find--is unequivocally backing NAFTA. More and more leaders are coming to realize that if there is one single act that can help the United States, and especially Orange County, pull itself out of the recession, NAFTA is indeed it.
As an entrepreneur, business owner and member of the biomedical manufacturing industry, I like the prospect of competing in the largest common market in the world on equal terms with Canada and Mexico.
Given an equal opportunity, Orange County biomedical manufacturers have the widely recognized quality products and superior customer service to successfully compete anywhere.
The opportunity that every business owner dreams of--a fair shake to compete on equal terms--is within our grasp, if we recognize NAFTA for what it can be: a job-creating machine. That reason, above all others, is why NAFTA merits public support.
One other vital aspect is that Mexico would undoubtedly be forced to create a common market with Japan and the European Community if the United States fails to approve NAFTA. That prospect, which President Clinton stressed in an Oct. 17, 1993, article in the Los Angeles Times, cannot be emphasized enough.
We are talking about the future of your job, and those of your family, friends and colleagues.
Having been laid off myself several times during my career, I know exactly what a shattering experience it can be. Perhaps not enough of the politicians who oppose NAFTA have had this personal experience themselves.
During the past 2 1/2 years, I have had hundreds of unemployed medical industry colleagues call or write me from coast to coast. I am sick at heart and fed up with the loss of jobs and untold misery that creates.
We can help save many people, especially in Orange County, from being laid off, if NAFTA is approved. That is why I believe NAFTA is worthy of support.
