With country music singing the praises of American soldiers in the background, the CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, Gary Shapiro, and the founder of Crutchfield Electronics, Bill Crutchfield, spoke this afternoon on the importance of free trade in the coming election. Community members, Crutchfield employees, and the press gathered together in a parking lot of the Crutchfield Distribution Center to listen to the gentlemen speak.
Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro (left) and Crutchfield founder Bill Crutchfield will tour the country to promote free trade.
Shapiro says the Consumer Electronics Association is going on a tour around the country in a colorfully decorated bus plastered with slogans of free trade in an effort to make a political impact.* So far, they have received unanimous support from town officials all over the country. Shapiro says Charlottesville is one of 30 cities they are visiting and it is their only stop in Virginia partly because it is very politically active. Both men stress free trade as key for a successful future saying prospects of worldwide sales and free trade strongly encourage countries to work collectively on the technological advances our world is demanding. This allows businesses to succeed and Americans to have jobs, they say.
“Our nation is not one that can afford to put up walls,” Shapiro said. “ The trend now is that people want to shut down the borders and we need to keep them open.”
Much of the motivation for their travels, Shapiro said, is aimed at making a political impact and especially convincing Democratic candidates to endorse the significance of free trade. “The last time we stepped away from free trade, we had the Great Depression,” Shapiro says.
With one more stop under their belts, Shapiro will continue promoting the issue of free trade and will stop next in North Carolina.
* This article originally misstated that Bill Crutchfield was on tour with the free trade bus. It was corrected Friday, July 25.