The Manufacturing Report

There's a lot that President Biden gets right on China. Why doesn't the rest of his administration agree? Robert Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, breaks down what's keeping the Biden administration from completely committing to its doctrine on China and what a coherent approach to dealings with Beijing could achieve.

Official White House Photo by Cameron Smith

Start your students’ year right by stocking up on American-made and union-made school supplies. Alliance for American Manufacturing's own Elizabeth Brotherton-Bunch and Cat Adams talk about their favorite Made in America school gear and tips for elementary all the way through college.

Photo by Nick Amoscato via Flickr

Nearly 3,000 members and allies of the United Steelworkers met in Las Vegas last week for the union’s first in-person constitutional convention since 2017. Several of America’s top government leadership joined the event to champion the power of America’s workers, including United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai. We share the highlights from her speech and our conversations with workers at the convention about the state of manufacturing today.

The International Trade Commission (ITC) hosted a marathon three-day hearing this July to examine the impacts of Section 232 on steel and aluminum imports and Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports. As you might expect, industry executives and trade lawyers are mainstays at these hearings like these, but the voice ITC officials really need to hear is that of America’s workers. In this episode, we share testimony offered by members of the United Steelworkers before the commission.

Photo courtesy of United Steelworkers via Flickr

Semiconductors are the powerhouses of virtually all of our advanced technology, but they require printed circuit boards (PCBs) to run. Though the United States once produced more than 26% of the world’s PCBs, offshoring has eviscerated America’s microelectronics manufacturing industry, leaving only 4% of PCBs now Made in America. There’s a new bill that could change that. Printed Circuit Board Association Chairman Travis Kelly shares how.

Photo courtesy of Isola Group

Robert Bettinardi had a passion for golf, and he had manufacturing expertise. He merged the two and almost a year and many pounds of steel later, he had milled his own putter. Bettinardi went on to manufacture for Titleist and Scotty Cameron before establishing family-owned putter brand Bettinardi Golf, which makes “the Ferrari” of putters from start to finish at Bettinardi’s factory just outside Chicago. Golfer Matthew Fitzpatrick recently won 2022 U.S. Open with one of the brand’s putters and will soon compete in the British Open with it in hand as well. Robert Bettinardi shares why his putters will always be Made in America and how the company is growing.

Photo courtesy of Bettinardi Golf

It's estimated that 2.1 million factory jobs will remain unfilled by 2030. However, efforts to increase equity in manufacturing promise to substantially expand the workforce and create pathways to the middle class for underserved communities. A new project coordinated by the Century Foundation (TCF) and the Urban Manufacturing Alliance examines the vital role community colleges play in this. TCF Fellow Michelle Burris explains how.

Photo courtesy of The Century Foundation

When the Biden administration released its year-long supply chain review — a report that was written by seven federal agencies and totaled in more than 1,300 pages — on Feb. 24, its import was understandably dwarfed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that day. However, the historic report reveals much about the Biden administration’s commitment to green industrial policy. Roosevelt Institute Director of Industrial Policy and Trade Todd Tucker, who authored a brief on the supply chain report, breaks it down for us.

Photo courtesy of the Roosevelt Institute

Since the Commerce Department first announced its plans to investigate whether Chinese solar panel manufacturers have been circumventing U.S. duties, the media has been whipped into a frenzy. And they’ve been playing right into the hands of a powerful special interest group – the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) – that’s made it its mission to cancel Commerce’s inquiry. David Dayen, the executive editor of public policy magazine The American Prospect, joins The Manufacturing Report to report what he has uncovered about SEIA and debunks some of the organization’s most insidious myths about trade enforcement.

Photo courtesy of David Dayen

The Commerce Department is investigating whether Chinese companies are routing solar panels through other countries to avoid U.S. duties. But this relatively routine trade case has erupted into a firestorm, with a special interest group undertaking a highly-organized and well-funded media campaign to cancel it. Much of their ire has been directed at Auxin Solar Inc., the California solar panel maker that filed the original petition. Auxin CEO Mamun Rashid joins The Manufacturing Report to explain why he's seeing this fight through — and why policymakers need to support American manufacturers like this company.