It’s kind of funny to go back and look at old newspaper stories and press releases, because so many of the issues from the mid-1970s have changed so little in the last 40 years. This release is about good U.S. jobs being shipped overseas. In this case it involves the shoe industry, but the components of this story are little different than the stories we now see about other U.S. jobs being exported to other countries. Those shoe jobs never came back…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Bill Frederick
Press secretary
Office of Sen. William D. Hathaway, D-Maine
(202)xxx-xxxx

U.S. should deal firmly with shoes imported from overseas, Hathaway says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Maine shoe industry will not be able to provide an adequate number of good-paying jobs until the U.S. recognizes that it must deal firmly with foreign shoe imports, according to Sen. William D. Hathaway, D-Maine.

The Maine shoe industry, once one of the largest and strongest industries in the state, has been weakened for years by the importation of shoes made in foreign countries. The shoes can be sold for less money because of the low wages paid in the exporting countries.

“We have finally taken some positive steps in limiting the imports since Jimmy Carter took over the White House,” Hathaway said. “We must not relax those efforts until the shoe industry is once again strong and vibrant.”

The Carter Administration has managed to limit foreign shoe imports through negotiated orderly market agreements.  The agreements with the exporting countries limit the number of shoes which can be brought into the U.S.

“These agreements have not been negotiated with all exporting countries, and they do not place the stringent limits that I would like to see,” Hathaway said. “However, they begin a process which should lead to the revitalization of one of our oldest and finest industries, and we must not let down until the industry is on the road to full health.”