S. Sampson wrote:
"huuto" wrote

The Ingersoll bankruptcy that put a kink in the JSF program
underscores how an upheaval in a critical industry such as machine tools
can threaten the processes of aerospace manufacturing. In the U.S.
Congress, concerns over the loss of manufacturing expertise have spurred
a new and stricter version of the "Buy America" movement. The House
version of the Fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill contains a host of
guidelines and restrictions aiming to protect U.S. industry. The Bush
administration, the Pentagon and industry are split on the effectiveness
of the legislation (AW&ST July 7, p. 23).


The NAFTA answer is to use machines built in Mexico. They're actually
higher quality, and cheaper than the **** that Americans produce.




Mexico doesn't build advanced machine tools for aerospace or other
high-tech industries. You have to buy them from China, Japan or Europe.
BTW did you know that USA has to buy all electron beam lithography
equipment for computer chip making from foreign owned companies (ASML
(Netherlands), Canon (Japan), Nikon (Japan)).