Congressman Ro Khanna visited Meridian Specialty Yarn Group last week

Congressman Ro Khanna toured North Carolina last week, making stops to chat with local leaders and manufacturers that have struggled to stay afloat as the purchase of more and more products has been outsourced to China over the years.

Meridian Specialty Yarn Group in Valdese hosted Khanna on Thursday afternoon, speaking with him about economic challenges and giving him a tour of their high-tech manufacturing facility.

Khanna, who represents California’s 17th congressional district, is Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The committee is geared toward rebuilding domestic manufacturing, supporting farmers, and creating jobs that pay well.

Khanna said what stands out about this region is the hope and optimism he has seen.

“Unfortunately, this trip has been a bit depressing,” Khanna said. “We were in Canton, where we saw the paper mill close. We heard cotton farmers talk in Georgia about not having enough revenue.”

Peanut farmers and furniture manufacturers he has spoken with also reported that they were not generating enough revenue, Khanna said.

“So this is a success story,” Khanna said of Meridian. “A textile yarn producer that has figured it out through innovation and customization, how to compete. But just because they figured it out doesn’t mean that they don’t need the government to have the right policies.”

Khanna said the U.S. needs to expand the Berry Amendment, which calls for the Department of Justice to favor domestically created products over foreign-made products.

“We need to make sure we incentivize American retailers to source from American yarn,” Khanna said.

China is not playing fair, Khanna said, because China’s government subsidizes jobs and individual American companies cannot compete with an entire country.

“These are good-paying jobs in local communities, and if you do not have high-paying manufacturing jobs, then what you’re going to see in this country is just a concentration into the big cities and not enough economic opportunity to sustain rural communities. … And when you have crises like COVID, or if there’s some kind of international conflict, then we’re going to regret not having an industrial base.”