A Need for Government Rethink?

yes and the other side of the coin....how many Asian and European company's import U.S. machine tool business, we never had the monopoly like we would like to think.

There is a US machine tool industry? I worked for six different machine tool companies before I finally surrendered, only one is still (barely) in business. From what I've seen the best machine tool technology is no longer in the US, export controls seem unnecessary.

the US machine tool industry is extinct. When I was a buyer of machine tools in 1980 we were the largest machine tool builder in the free world. Last time I checked we were no. 6 Why bother to march on Washington, this discussion is a total waste of our time, there is nothing we can do because no one cares and no one will listen . The facts are that a combination of things such as government rules, apathy and pure stupidity are the cause. In 1984 I worked for a machine tool builder, Caterpillar was our biggest customer. Ronald Regan stopped Cat from exporting machinery to Russia and Komatsu stepped in and supplied all they needed. The only thing that it accomplished is it put Komatsu on the map and put us out of business. In 1990 we could not ship to certain countries due to national security. Toshiba and Sajo combined to make a machine that could produce the profile on submarine propellers to make them quieter. Toshiba computer were not bought on government contracts for a couple of years. That was the only consequence for either. I had a machine tool business and I can tell you foreign companies that have plants in the US do not buy US tools and equipment. I went out of business 8 years ago as the machine tool and manufacturing here collapsed. This left me and a lot of people I know with out a full income.

The Government is really in our way.

one solution would be to mirror image a given countries import/export/ownership laws IE; country ZXY doesn't allow the import of centerless grinders (to protect their centerless grinder industry), so we, in response don't allow the import of centerless grinders from country ZXY. This policy can/should be extended to all trade.

Also, our government needs to step completely out of the way as far as fee's and tariffs are concerned.

Do you realize that America's trade agreements are negotiated by the State Department? How stupid! State is primarily interested in "good diplomatic relations" with other countries, not "good trade" and will sacrifice good trade relationships for good diplomatic relationships. I say trade first and the niceties later!!!