これはニューヨークタイムズだ。

The Price of ‘Made in China’
By PETER NAVARRO
Published: August 4, 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/opinion/the-price-of-made-in-china.html?hp&_r=0 

ブルックリンとスタテンアイランドを結ぶ、ヴェラザノ海峡にかかる吊り橋をニューヨークの都市交通局が中国の業者に発注して来たことを問題にしている。中国に発注すれば、アメリカの鉄鋼建設業界の労働者が犠牲になる。中国は鉄鋼産業に補助金を出している。また、中国の建設コストが安いのは中国人の労働者も過重労働で犠牲になっているからだ。そして輸入した鉄鋼も不良品が多い。出来たものも品質上の問題がある。中国製はこうした建設ばかりではない。おもちゃなどの製品も同じだ。と言ったことを言っている。いわば、アメリカ製品が中国製品に負けているので、その泣き言を言っている。バイアメリカンの宣伝文句だ。しかしながら、それでもアメリカ人はこうした中国のサービスとか製品を買っていることが中国人と一緒で、良いものは良いと言う判断があるのだろう。この記者のように保護貿易を支持する人もいるが、まさに、今のTPPの動きと一緒で、保護貿易に走ればきりがないだろう。そうした動きに今までは日本人は負けて来たケースが多いようだが、今後はこうしたアメリカ人の意見には反論して行く必要がある。


HERE is a symbol of China’s assault on the American economy: the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Staten Island. This landmark, which opened in 1964, is North America’s longest suspension bridge. It’s also in urgent need of renovation. Unfortunately, $34 million in steel production and fabrication work has been outsourced to China.

攻撃
歴史的建造物
吊り橋
修理

How did this happen? The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says a Chinese fabricator was picked because the two American companies approached for the project lacked the manufacturing space, special equipment and financial capacity to do the job. But the United Steelworkers claims it quickly found two other American bridge fabricators, within 100 miles of New York City, that could do the job.

都市交通局◆ニューヨークの地下鉄とバスを運営している機関
鉄鋼労働組合
製作者

The real problem with this deal is that it doesn’t take into account all of the additional costs that buying “Made in China” brings to the American table. In fact, this failure to consider all costs is the same problem we as consumers face every time we choose a Chinese-made product on price alone — a price that is invariably cheaper. Consider the safety issue: a scary one, indeed, because China has a very well-deserved reputation for producing inferior and often dangerous products. Such products are as diverse as lead-filled toys, sulfurous drywall, pet food spiked with melamine and heparin tainted with oversulfated chondroitin sulfate.

必ずより安い
恐ろしいこと
様々な
硫黄の乾式壁
こっそり別のものを混ぜる
過硫酸化のコンドロイチン硫酸
ヘパリン◆肝臓や肺の組織から採取される、血栓症の治療に用いられる抗凝固作用を持つ有機酸。

In the specific case of bridges, six have collapsed across China since July 2011. The official Xinhua news agency has acknowledged that shoddy construction and inferior building materials were contributing factors. There is also a cautionary tale much closer to home. When California bought Chinese steel to renovate and expand the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, for a project that began in 2002, problems like faulty welds by a Chinese steel fabricator delayed the project for months and led to huge cost overruns. Those delays eroded much of the savings California was banking on when it opted for the “cheap” Chinese steel.

手抜きの建設
品質が劣った
不良溶接
当てにする

There is a second reason not to buy “Made in China” products: jobs. The abiding fact is that steel production is heavily subsidized by the Chinese government. These subsidies range from the massive benefits of a manipulated and undervalued currency to the underwriting of the costs of energy, land, loans and water. Because of China’s subsidies — most of which are arguably illegal under international trade agreements — its producers are able to dump steel products into America at or below the actual cost of production. This problem is particularly acute now as China is saddled with massive overcapacity in its steel industry.

いつまでも変わらない
エネルギー、土地、借入金、水の費用の負担まで
ほぼ間違いなく、
ダンピングする
深刻な
巨大な過剰生産能力を負っている

Of course, every job China gains by dumping steel into American markets is an American job lost. Each steelworker’s job in America generates additional jobs in the economy, along with increased tax revenues. With over 20 million Americans now unable to find decent work, we could certainly use those jobs as we repair the Verrazano Bridge. The M.T.A. has ignored not only the social costs but also the broader impact on the environment and human rights. Chinese steel plants emit significantly more pollution and greenhouse gases per ton of steel produced than plants in the United States. This not only contributes to global warming but also has a direct negative impact on American soil, since an increasing amount of China’s pollution is crossing the Pacific Ocean on the jet stream.

まともな仕事

Finally, when American companies and government agencies opt for Chinese over American steel, they are tacitly supporting an authoritarian regime that prohibits independent labor unions from organizing — one of many grim ironies in today’s People’s Republic. As a result, American workers are forced to compete against Chinese workers who regularly work 12-hour days, six or seven days a week, without adequate safety gear. Both Chinese and American steelworkers wind up as victims.

アメリカの鉄鋼よりも中国の方を選ぶ
それとなく
独裁政権
不快な皮肉
安全装置
結局、犠牲になる

The bottom line here is this: Buying “Made in China” — whether steel for our bridges or dolls for our children — entails large costs that most consumers and, sadly, even our leaders don’t consider when making purchases. This is hurting our country — and killing our economy. Peter Navarro, a professor of economics and public policy in the business school at the University of California, Irvine, directed the documentary film “Death by China.”

必要とする

今日はこれまで。昨日はサムソンの偉い人と会食できた。朝はよたよたしながら雨の中をスケートした。途中４回も休憩したが、３週続けてしんどかった。なぜだろうか？午後は英語の勉強があって、夕方からデスクワークをしたが、調子は良かった。ただ、昨晩は2時まで寝ることができなかった。２晩続けて、10時間以上寝ていたからだろうか？今日も昼食以外はデスクワークが出来る。ではまた明日。