Foreign firms take the profits

To the editor:

Carlos M. Gutierrez, U.S. secretary of commerce, says in Thursday's op-ed that as immigrants we're proud of America and the strength it derives from being open to trade. As a legal immigrant I'm proud of America as it once was.

I find it pitiful and ironic that the secretary is extolling the virtues of the Hitachi plant and hundreds of overseas firms that are doing business in America. Capital and profits that foreign companies accumulate in the U.S. do not accrue to the U.S. but to the foreign country. Our workers are being pitted against workers in China and Mexico who are earning from 25 cents to $2 an hour. This is a bonanza for multinational firms that pay dirt-cheap labor and sell their products in the U.S. for huge profits. Wal-Mart can realize a 60 to 70 percent margin on Chinese-manufactured goods while only making 15 to 20 percent on U.S.-made goods. Are these retailers and manufacturers passing the savings to the U.S. consumer? Of course not.

NAFTA has resulted in hundreds of thousands of Mexican subsistence farmers' going broke as our grain flooded that country and impoverished the peasants there. Since NAFTA went into effect millions more Mexicans have streamed across our border. Hundreds of American manufacturing plants such as Tri-con and Dana have moved to Mexico. Even Procter & Gamble is moving plants to Mexico. Can you imagine the impact on this area if the local P&G plant moved out?

ALBERT J. ZIMMER, Patton, Mo.