Can the U.S. furniture industry compete globally?
YES and NO! If it’s to be business as usual the answer is no. We simply cannot do things the way they’ve been done the past fifty years and compete with the low cost imports from places like China. Let’s face it, labor at an average of .69 cents an hour, no environmental or worker protection requirements, low overhead, add up to an insurmountable list of obstacles to address head-on and win. I read recently that one Furniture Trade Organization plans to petition the government to put protective tariffs on imports from China. While action like this is certainly warranted to protect domestic manufacturers against “dumping”, that is selling their products below cost to gain market share, it is never a long term solution. The steel industry has secured government protection on several occasions and instead of using the time and money gained to revamp their operations, they did nothing different, and we all know the result. So what’s the answer? First it is to realize that foreign competito
