>> JOANNE: The U.S. buys more from other countries than itself, a San Diego businessman wants
to change that using labels, former Republican politician, and book author, Alan Uke is here
to explain his new book is called "buying America back" thank you, Alan.
Who is America's biggest trade partner?
>> China and we buy more manufactured goods from them than any other country.
>> JOANNE: We have numbers to show people at home and these are from 2010, exports to
China $91 billion, imports to U.S., $364 billion, now let's talk about labels how would labels
make a different in terms of that balance?
>> The labels are a bigger predict, what I want to do is put labels on products which
don't tell you just one thing like "made in China" or "made in the U.S." what you will
have is a list of countries that are contributing to that product and things are made in many
countries now, components coming from all over the world when you make things so you
can see a label on food the detail of what's in it and you can make a decision about, I
want to buy this versus this one because I like the content of this better than the other
content.
>> JOANNE: So we're looking at that label right now, something that you envision where
you've got a country where only 2% of the product originates from, why is this important
to know, this breakdown like this?
>> Well this is a good example, it's a random example but what it means is that you have
your own personal preferences and you may want to know what the trade ratio is so if
you buy a television from china, it's 25% trade ratio which means for every dollar that
we buy from them they buy 25 cents from us, Korea is 79 and you're better off in the U.S.
economy buying a Korean or Chinese television than Japanese.
But there is a quality difference because if you see something that has components made
in other countries, things we associate with and developed in high standards you're probably
going to get something that lasts longer and this would tell you that it's made from stuff
from countries that's going to give you a better product.
>> JOANNE: Aren't you asking consumers to make these judgment calls, isn't international
trade based on economics and are you asking consumers to put value judgments on where
something comes from, you know, what percentage, etÊcetera?
>> ActuallyÊ two things, first of all they do and in other countries, if you try to sell
something to the Japanese or Koreans or Germans, they want to by their own stuff first it's
huge to move them off of a huge decision where they buy locally and the U.S. isn't like that,
it's like a football game where they tackle and we don't.
So trying to sell something to the Chinese who will do anything but buy an American product,
the two largest items are recycled paper and metal, they try not to buy anything from the
United States so I sell to 60 countries, one I don't sell to is China.
>> JOANNE: So you have a business, are any of the manufacturing parts of your business
come from anywhere >> We buy things from China, it's hard not
to buy things without Chinese components and there are percentages, by the way my stuff
is labeled it's made in the U.S. because the vast majority is made here but there are components
from other countries.
>> JOANNE: So >> But I think it's only fair because we're
saying it's made in America but there is 10% of what's coming from China in this product
and people should know that, to buy something 100% American made, once you start seeing
the labels a lot of them don't look good but they could change their act but I can't unilaterally
change it because my costs would be higher unless everyone else changes it.
>> JOANNE: These labels stop somebody from buying something made in Taiwan or somewhere
else, how would that help our economy?
>> If you buy from Taiwan versus China, it would help, if you buy American, it would
be that much more of an improvement and these differences add up to the majority of the
economy.
>> JOANNE: We don't have a lot of time left I know this is a bill that you're hoping to
get support for, it's not just a book but this labeling issue you want a law passed.
The bottom line for people at home, don't they want to be things that are cheaper?
>> Not necessarily, the last example is clothes, I could be wearing a suit if I wanted something
that was cheap, a jumpsuit.
We bought this because of the cut and the color, maybe these are made in Haiti, because
they need money so it is personal preference, and where the content comes from is a right,
really, to know where we're sending our money.
>> JOANNE: Thanks for being here, Alan Uke.