WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?

[Music] All right. There's times when you do have to go to Japan. There's times where this man is talking about imports. Maybe they'll fabricate it faster and cheaper. Yeah. That's But the only thing is you're putting your own people out of work. How imports affect their jobs is what many people talk about these days in a lot of different places. Even on top of the world's highest building, one of the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, the house that imports and exports built. And everyone wants to know what's in it for me. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Pete Montour is a full-blooded Mohawk Indian and like the cranes he works with, he is by today's standards an import. Pete and many of these men come from Canada and like the cranes, their reason for being here is that they can do something especially well. Also, they don't get dizzy at these heights. Even the steel in these buildings comes from three continents. These men are paid well for their skilled and hazardous work. When they spend their money, they become consumers. And the consumer's first right is choice. Construction workers need hard hats and boots to protect their feet. So the styles they choose are very much alike. The boot makers provided for this special need. On Fifth Avenue on a sunny day, it's a different story. And here the choice appears to be unlimited. Here too, the boot makers have provided. Not only those of America, but Italian and Spanish and French designers have found ways to make the going great. The looking too, and many of these, whatever they are, are imported. And like that little dog from Tibet, make life a little more fun. More than 5 million Americans go to somewhere in the world each year. They bring back ideas. And the ideas which catch on here provide good business for American importers and for American manufacturers. When people travel, even on a foreign airline, they're almost sure to go on an Americanbuilt plane. A 747 costs $27 million. That's a lot of shoes. [Applause] The quality of life can be best measured by what comes after the basic needs of food and shelter. For most Americans, there's a lot more to living than food and shelter. Ballet and pasta, exotic entertainment and good theater, Chinese fortune cookies and Danish biscuits. Good shows and good eating in an intriguing combination of choices. Even knowledge is important and altogether it spells [Music] culture. To get dressed up for one's entertainment adds a very special luster to the [Music] event. The opera is an import. So is soccer right here in Yankee Stadium. [Applause] In fashion, the word is elegance. The word comes from France, as do many of these dresses. While jeans made in America have become the fashion uniform of the young in Tokyo, Berlin, and Budapest, America's well-dressed woman still dreams of a French couturier design like this one by a designer so wellknown he insists on calling himself Msura X. But at $2,000, there would be few customers. So, a famous fashion store buys the design and has it reproduced in the same material and with quality workmanship right here in New York's garment center. [Laughter] Knowing how to produce good quality in large numbers has always been an American specialty. Not only mass production products, but this kind with time and skill for fine details. A French idea combined with American production competence becomes an available fashion in many sizes and at a price that sells. [Music] In the peaceful countryside of Middle America, another kind of international cooperation in ideas and production takes place. In this Ohio plant, windshields and automobile windows are being manufactured. Only a year old, it's already being enlarged to triple its size. [Music] This pane of glass was made in another American factory not far from here by a new method which produces plate glass quality at window glass prices. Pilington, a British firm, pioneered the process and called the product float glass because it gets its smooth surface by floating on a bed of hot liquid tin. Now, this man cuts it to size and it's prepared for laminating and shaping so it will fit exactly into the cars it's designed for. [Music] Safety glass produced by American craftsmen according to an English process shaped for a car made in Germany. [Music] Some of the glass stays right here in this country to be used for repair and replacement, but most of it is exported to Germany for original installation at the factory. [Music] Even in the air age, exports and imports still travel mostly by sea. The voyage may not be as romantic as once it was when clipper ships ruled the seven seas, but on ship and ashore, more people are employed today than ever were in the day of the sailing vessel. And the great harbor cities of the world still haven't lost their special appeal. There are new methods. Instead of goods stowed individually or in bulk, they can now be shipped in these containers. Now the cargo can make the whole trip on land and sea without reloading or handling. Loss and damage are reduced to a minimum. And that is really the simple fact and image of international trade. These cranes are designed to load and unload a vessel simultaneously. As one set of containers goes out to continue on by road or rail, another set of containers carrying goods made in America begins its voyage to customers overseas who will buy these goods with the dollars they have earned by selling their merchandise [Music] [Music] here. The ships themselves are international by birth and heritage. This British flag vessel was built in the shipyards of Braymond, Germany. But its jet engines, which make it the fastest cargo ship ever built, come from Hartford, Connecticut, and are very much like the ones on the 747. Wherever ships make harbor along the vast US coastline, east and west, on the Great Lakes, and in the Gulf of Mexico, vessels of all nations light and load. Just the men who run the cranes and drive the trucks add up to thousands of jobs. [Music] Sometimes an important idea really takes hold. And America's traffic picture changed a lot when people found out they could think small and get there for less. It didn't take long before Detroit, with its enormous production capacity, decided to produce their own versions of peopleiz transportation and join in the marketplace. Once an important idea or product makes it here, it takes people and money to make it work. To import an automobile, even a small one, and sell it to service-minded Americans means more than 50,000 jobs in offices and showrooms and service garages and warehouses. And doing business the American way means new buildings and sophisticated business machines to keep track of all of it. The average American dealer in imported cars has invested well over a quarter of a million dollars of his hard-earned money in his business. Mr. Hint, is there any projection? This regional headquarters exists to support him and assure him that his investment and the jobs of his employees are well protected and the regional offices themselves provide employment. [Music] Good mechanics are not born. They must be trained. Just how much of a loss is concerned when the compressor is installed. Compressor draws. Today's mechanic must be as familiar with the intricacies of the computerized fuel injector as he already had to be with disc brakes and synchrome mesh transmissions earlier imports. And if there is a problem, the latest diagnostic devices made in America help him determine accurately where it is and how to fix it. More people and other machines in large warehouses all over America service dealer stocks continuously so that no customer has to wait for a needed part. Today, the American family can choose a television set from a long list of famous names, foreign and domestic, depending only on the price they want to pay and the size of their living room. An American watch maker thought up a whole new way to make a watch tick because competition from imports threatened his share of the market. Then he produced them in a quality and at a price which made it not only America's bestselling watch but a bestseller around the world. The most important contribution that international trade has made to Americans is competition itself. German cameras once dominated the market. Then Japanese. But when an American invention made it possible to snap a picture and see the results before the sun disappeared behind the next cloud, it made an American word a word in any language. What's in it for me? Lower prices, better products, jobs, new opportunities for everyone. [Music] [Music] [Music]