Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/midwest-manufacturers-fight-to-stay-competitive-in-global-marketplace Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript In the second of a series of reports on America's response to globalization, Paul Solman reports on how some Midwestern manufacturers work to bridge the gap with foreign companies and fight to keep U.S. companies relevant in the changing global marketplace. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. PAUL SOLMAN, NewsHour Economics Correspondent: In Milwaukee, the annual Wisconsin Machine Tool Show, with this year's display of equipment to boost U.S. productivity, help our manufacturers compete globally.Distributor Mike Weller.So who do you represent? MIKE WELLER, Machine Tool Distributor: I represent Mighty USA, the– PAUL SOLMAN: Mighty USA? MIKE WELLER: Mighty USA. PAUL SOLMAN: How much more American can you get? Actually, though… MIKE WELLER: They're an importer based in California named for machine tools from Taiwan. PAUL SOLMAN: So you could say, for half a century, Mighty USA in Taiwan has been making the real USA less mighty in manufacturing, an increasingly familiar story. MIKE WELLER: I sold nothing but American-built machines tools 15 years ago, and I loved it. I was representing Americans, selling to Americans. I felt proud about what I was doing. PAUL SOLMAN: Do you feel a little, I don't know, guilty that you're not supporting Americans, but people in Taiwan? MIKE WELLER: Well, yes, I do feel a little guilty from the fact that I've had to shift gears to make a living and provide for my own family. PAUL SOLMAN: The story we're about to tell, however, might help lift Mike Weller's guilt by allowing him to sell American machine tools once more, because the cost gap between "Made in America" and "Made Abroad" is shrinking, due to steps U.S. firms are taking and larger global forces.At first glance here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, once the pride of the rust belt, it's a little hard to believe. The place where they made Schlitz, the beer that made Milwaukee famous, is now an office park. Pabst Blue Ribbon has been reduced to rubble, hard times for the city of foam and chrome.