U.S. and foreign hospitals are building medical centers in cities such as Singapore and Shanghai for wealthy patients who no longer can or want to travel to the United States. New regulations threaten to crimp commerce along the U.S.-Mexico border. Experts in the cutting-edge technologies that are likely to drive growth in the 21st century face long waits for visas, or outright rejection. Instead of attending the best U.S. schools, foreign graduate students are heading to Britain and Australia.
Wealthy foreigners are shopping, buying vacation homes and investing elsewhere. That has contributed to a plunge in direct foreign investment in the United States, which dropped to $40 billion last year from $72 billion the year before, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Firms such as Dresser-Rand, Boeing and Merck are outsourcing work, moving meetings to less restrictive locations abroad or expanding foreign operations.
...[T]here is no program for expediting visas for frequent business or academic visitors, and it can take several years for workers with specialized skills to obtain them.
articleWealthy foreigners are shopping, buying vacation homes and investing elsewhere. That has contributed to a plunge in direct foreign investment in the United States, which dropped to $40 billion last year from $72 billion the year before, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Firms such as Dresser-Rand, Boeing and Merck are outsourcing work, moving meetings to less restrictive locations abroad or expanding foreign operations.
...[T]here is no program for expediting visas for frequent business or academic visitors, and it can take several years for workers with specialized skills to obtain them.
Over-reaction to 9/11 and our nationalist focus are going to shut this country down.
Visa delays alone have cost U.S. exporters $30.7 billion in lost contracts, delayed shipments and other areas, according to a study released in June by Reinsch's group and seven other leading U.S. business organizations. The restrictions impede access to fast-growing markets in countries such as China, which has supported the administration's campaign against terrorism.
...Some of the companies hit hardest are those that have been doing business with the Middle East or Muslim countries elsewhere. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. firms have lost at least $1.5 billion a year in contracts, tourism receipts and tuition from the Arab world, says the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce, a Washington-based trade group.
...Midamar, an Iowa food products trading company, is one of them. Founder Bill Aossey's customers include the foreign outposts of McDonald's, KFC and other large U.S. restaurant and hotel chains.
Aossey couldn't get visas this year for any of his top dozen foreign clients to visit his facility and attend the nation's biggest restaurant trade show, in Chicago. Last year, only two were able to get into the country.
"I've lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in business over the last three years," said the frustrated 62-year-old, who recently lost an order for $175,000 worth of bakery equipment to a Belgian firm because his Saudi customer couldn't get its Egyptian engineer into the United States.
...Applications for visas to visit Dresser-Rand's headquarters disappeared into a bureaucratic black hole. The company's foreign-born employees also had problems reentering the United States, particularly if they were returning from a country deemed a security risk. One of its engineers, an Egyptian who has been working legally in the United States for four years, has been delayed at the airport for as long as 10 hours on numerous occasions. With Dresser charging $2,000 a day for the services of an engineer, the losses add up quickly.
...Steve Churbock, 43, manager of the controls field services team, said Dresser-Rand was forced to forgo bidding on a number of contracts valued at $300,000 to $400,000 apiece.
The visa problems also have hurt Dresser-Rand's cash flow. Since its equipment is sophisticated and custom-made, customers visit the factory to oversee final testing, a process that can take two weeks. And they don't pay until they're satisfied.
"Enough is enough," Churbock said. "We're being choked by these policies, and Americans don't have a lot of friends left in the world."
...Some of the companies hit hardest are those that have been doing business with the Middle East or Muslim countries elsewhere. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. firms have lost at least $1.5 billion a year in contracts, tourism receipts and tuition from the Arab world, says the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce, a Washington-based trade group.
...Midamar, an Iowa food products trading company, is one of them. Founder Bill Aossey's customers include the foreign outposts of McDonald's, KFC and other large U.S. restaurant and hotel chains.
Aossey couldn't get visas this year for any of his top dozen foreign clients to visit his facility and attend the nation's biggest restaurant trade show, in Chicago. Last year, only two were able to get into the country.
"I've lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in business over the last three years," said the frustrated 62-year-old, who recently lost an order for $175,000 worth of bakery equipment to a Belgian firm because his Saudi customer couldn't get its Egyptian engineer into the United States.
...Applications for visas to visit Dresser-Rand's headquarters disappeared into a bureaucratic black hole. The company's foreign-born employees also had problems reentering the United States, particularly if they were returning from a country deemed a security risk. One of its engineers, an Egyptian who has been working legally in the United States for four years, has been delayed at the airport for as long as 10 hours on numerous occasions. With Dresser charging $2,000 a day for the services of an engineer, the losses add up quickly.
...Steve Churbock, 43, manager of the controls field services team, said Dresser-Rand was forced to forgo bidding on a number of contracts valued at $300,000 to $400,000 apiece.
The visa problems also have hurt Dresser-Rand's cash flow. Since its equipment is sophisticated and custom-made, customers visit the factory to oversee final testing, a process that can take two weeks. And they don't pay until they're satisfied.
"Enough is enough," Churbock said. "We're being choked by these policies, and Americans don't have a lot of friends left in the world."
And Dresser-Rand is in business in the oil sector. Like many companies in that sector, it's got to do business with people from the Middle East - the very people who are being targeted with our repressive policies. How long before Dresser-Rand and others decide it's costing them too much money to do business in America?
I can't quite figure out how capitalists reconcile their truly anti-business fear-based policies with their love of capitalist profits. We have a saying here in Missouri - probably they have it in Texas, too - you cut off your nose to spite your face.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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