The fashion manufacturing sector sustains about 200 000 jobs and is vital to the economies of a number of cities and towns. We believe strong partnerships between design and manufacturing can grow the sector and create jobs.

We can create many local jobs if all retailers were to take advantage of local capacity. We have willing workers and idle industrial capacity.

We now need all government procurement, from municipal to national, to be from local companies.

We need a triple package: trade measures with China, a competitiveness package and an active 'buy local' campaign.

Currently we have construction job levels reaching toward the ceiling but manufacturing jobs are virtually at the floor. With hardly any room to fall further, it doesn't seem likely that problems in housing and in construction will spread to manufacturing this time.

Over the last five years, Wisconsinites have lost nearly 80,000 manufacturing jobs, largely because of unfair trade agreements and questionable administration policies.