Trump talks trade at shuttered NH factory
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Republican Donald Trump talked trade at a shuttered New Hampshire factory on Thursday, putting a more personal spin on his vow to rip up the nation's trade deals and impose new tariffs in an effort to revive local manufacturing jobs.
Speaking to a small, invitation-only crowd outside the closed Osram Sylvania plant, which used to manufacture lighting products, Trump again called for backing away from decades of U.S. policy that encouraged trade with other nations.
The approach marks a departure from the free-trade tenants of conservative orthodoxy, and has been panned by Democrats as well as the usually Republican-friendly U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which warned it would lead to millions of job losses and a recession.
Trump used the factory, which closed in 2014 and moved some of the 139 jobs moved to a plant in Mexico, as an example of the human toll of trade deals like NAFTA.
[...] spokesman Glen Gracia said, the shift was a response to declining demand for traditional lighting products that were produced at the Manchester, New Hampshire facility.
The Energy Independence and Security Act, signed by President George W. Bush in 2007, is part of what led to the use of more energy-efficient lighting and caused the lower demand in products made at the Osram plant, Gracia said.
[...] polling shows that the vast majority of Americans say they prefer lower prices instead of paying a premium for items labeled "Made in the USA."