CHINA TRADE POLICY
by Bud Buck, 5/26/00

Dc: This is DCR. It's not the news. The national discussion that dominated the week's news concerning trade relations with China has opened many eyes to the notion that commerce is not just a matter of buying stuff. It is a lever which can be used to influence nations and, perhaps, change the world. Bud Buck reports.

(sfx: mall sfx)

Bud: When Jan Fitzimmons and her best friend Esther Michaels go shopping, they're looking for a good deal more than a good deal. As consumers they consider themselves key players in the global marketplace. They weigh every decision, and they intend to make a difference.
I followed them around for a bit to see how they do it.

Esther: (fade up) Let's go in to Acme Shoes.

Jan: I won't go in there. They buy from sweatshops.

Esther: OK, how about Compulsive Footwear?

Jan: The soles on their shoes are by-products of industrial pollution.
They've got asbestos and DDT and ozone killing compounds in there.

Esther: Oh. We can't have that. (pause) Unless we find some shoes that are good, positive shoes. We could buy those as a statement!

Jan: There ARE no positive shoes.

Esther: Well let's go in there and TELL them!

Jan: No! As soon as we walk in, we're accomplices!
I want them to see me out here NOT coming in so they can suffer and think about how they MIGHT have had my business.

Bud: Here's an interesting store. Alley Oop. I wonder what they sell?

Jan: That chain is owned by people who have an interest in a bank that loans money to a lab that does research for a pharmaceutical company that conveniently looks the other way with regard to testing on animals! I couldn't possibly.

Esther: How about Wristy Business? That's a nice store.

Jan: The baby seals don't think so.

Bud: That store is tied into the baby seal thing?

Jan: Yup.

Esther: They sell watch bands! They don't even sell the watches!

Bud: You mean the watch bands are made out of baby seals?

Jan: No! But the springy stuff they use is synthesized in factories that are based in countries which permit the cutting of trees out of the rain forest that are then taken to the sawmill where turned into lumber for houses and also made into clubs.

Bud: Clubs?

Jan: They're directly connected to notorious international baby seal club peddlers.

Bud: Is there a retailer in these hundreds of stores that you ARE willing to patronize?

(pause)

Any product that isn't involved somehow in destroying the earth?

Esther: How about … dental floss!
I think I heard … that they grow it in Montana. Without chemicals.
That was either in a Reagan speech or a record album.

Jan: You obviously have no idea what's been happening with the waxing of dental floss outside the rules and regulations that were carefully set out in the floss waxing compact of 1997.

Esther: Oops.

Jan: Workers were ingesting the wax … it was the equivalent of eating one whole candle a year. (fade) I couldn't possibly do anything to encourage this kind of travesty …

Bud: (vo) And so … as global economic and environmental awareness grows … activist consumers are finding it increasingly difficult to make a politically correct purchase.

Esther: What about taconite? Isn't that made in America?

Bud: Will their vigilance make a difference … will they ever buy anything, or will they simply shop … till they (or we) drop?
Time will Tell! This is BB.

(sfx: mall sfx out)

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