Federal Trade Commission Received Documents Aug 1 1995 B18354900304 Secretary TECH TEAM INC. 114 SKYLINE DRIVE, BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA 16001 USA FAX: 412-285-8549 TEL: 412-285-9351 July 29, 1995 Office of the Secretary Federal Trade Commission "Made in the USA" 6th St and Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20580 TEL: 202 FAX: 202 Dear Sirs, This letter is in response to a recent article in USA Today, around July 14th I believe, discussing "Made in USA". This is a very touchy subject, and I believe most people don't realize how important this is to our economy. (Especially the main stream press, which believes American companies can no longer produce quality product, especially automobiles, and are even usually pure evil. Just interview 100 reporters, and I bet over 85% to 90% will drive foreign cars. I always ask when riding beside one on an airplane, and so far, it is nearly 100%.) Shortly after our company was started, we implemented a policy that all items, unless there are extremely pressing reasons it cannot be so, must be Made in USA. We preach this policy, and practice it, even when it is more costly. Company policy is for our salesmen to drive cars made in USA. If a vendor's salesman comes into our facility driving a foreign car, he can be rejected for that reason alone. (The car the salesman drives is checked for this. If we know he represents a foreign product, he is not even granted an appointment.) Since it might be true that hardly anything is 100% Made in USA, (even our company has about 2% foreign made product, but we are always searching for, and finding, USA suppliers to change this), I would suggest a grading scale, Made in USA - A rating, etc. Suggested grades follow: A+ better than 95% A 90% to 94.99% B 80% to 89.99% C 70% to 79.99% D 60% to 69.99% F below 60% This scale must also consider where component parts come from, so the Hondas and Toyotas assembled here would have to account for this in their rating. (Tech Team would rate an A+ on this scale.) If people realized how many taxes were paid by manufacturing, they would understand that purchasing foreign products is in reality, legal and condoned tax evasion! (Condoned by the press.) I did an analysis once of cur company's costs, and came up with 45% of our final product's selling price was taxes, insurance, and EPA regulations. General Motors did a commercial once where 40% of a $10,000 car was tax alone, so I cannot be too far off. I believe this is sole root cause of why we are having difficulty competing with foreign manufacturers, and having such economic problems! This is why I believe we should eliminate all income taxes, social security taxes, property taxes, etc., (generally all payroll taxes), to be replaced by one single straight consumer sales tax, and nothing else! (State, local, and federal would all get their share of this tax, and nothing else.) For a while, I was getting pretty protectionist, but I know this doesn't work. Also, since this is a free country, so you should be able to buy whatever you want. But right now, American made products are bearing the brunt of our tax and social policies, while the foreign products escape most of it and thereby are much lower net cost. (45% tariff on our goods, but only 2.5% tariff on Japanese cars?) As more and more American manufacturers go down the tubes, fewer industries are left to tax, so their tax share increases even more, creating additional collapses of the fewer remaining industries. The cycle has been self perpetuating for the last 20 years, and if policies are not reversed, chaos will result. I will be happy to provide further evidence, information, and discussions, although I am extremely limited on time. We are working our butts off just trying to survive. Please provide your telephone and fax number for quicker future response time and easier communications. Sincerely, Fred W. Hensel President Tech Team Inc. 114 Skyline Drive Butler PA 16001 U.S.A. TEL: 412-285-9351 FAX: 412-285-8549