North American Free Trade Agreement]
Most American voters probably only know the acronym. And very, very few Millennials. Oh, and that Sarah Palin said she can see Russia from her house (Tina Fey).
The meat of the story is that we really don’t dictate this. Lowering of European tariffs is a big factor. We could quintuple our Mexican tariffs and these plants would still get built.
Korea-US Free Trade Agreement Two Years Out: Promise vs. Reality
Before the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) was adopted, a lot of promises were made. This deal would result in more U.S. jobs and bigger markets for U.S. goods in Korea, we were told. The problems of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would be fixed, we were promised.
March 15 marks the second anniversary of this deal, and two years out, reality doesn't match up with any of those promises. That's a lesson that hasn't been lost on working families, consumers, greens and other citizen groups. And that's why there is such strong, and growing, opposition by ordinary Americans to another trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
In 2013, under the first full year of the Korean Free Trade Agreement, the U.S. trade deficit with South Korea -- the shortfall between what we export to Korea and the goods that Korea exports to the U.S. -- was more than $20 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported, an increase of nearly 100% from deficits prior to adoption of this agreement.
The U.S. overall trade deficit with the 11 countries now negotiating with the U.S. for the TPP is $154 billion, and Korea has expressed strong interest in joining the TPP deal as well. Our elected leaders need to be reminded that trade deficits are directly linked to jobs. More U.S. exports in goods and services mean more jobs, except when those exports are dwarfed by a flood of imported goods and services, as has happened under every major trade deal in the past 20 years, including the Korea trade deal.
What happened to the 70,000 jobs that the Korea Free Trade deal was supposed to create? They never materialized. Instead, U.S. workers lost 40,000 jobs in the first year of the agreement.
Wow, a little honesty in this debate. And that's what these agreements have always been about: reduce tariffs of goods imported to the US to little or nothing, then move manufacturing plants out of the US to take advantage of cheap labor, lax regulation and other lower costs and no tariffs to ship products back to the US for sale.
And that's what TPP will be about plus who knows what else. The US will realize higher trade deficits, higher real unemployment, lower earnings for the middle and lower classes, and higher budget deficits due to more and more Americans on means tested poverty programs which already cost a trillion per year.
Every trade agreement has been sold as opening new markets to American products, increasing exports and creating new jobs. They do the opposite except for a few industries. I think the TPP will be great for US Pacific ports, at least until that work is diverted to Mexican ports.
A GM Line Worker makes $58 an hour in Wages and Benefits?
I obviously went into the wrong line of work. LOL
this article was pretty much lifted from a recent Forbes article
it verges on plagerism
Perot was right on the money. Many of the cultural issues we see today are connected to the loss of the low ed requirement manufacturing jobs. Its fed into the cost of education and its fed into the growing dependency class and decrease in the number of marriages and intact families. Its been good for Mexico and good for China. I’m not anti trade. I just believe in fair trade and trade that puts the interests of the citizens first not just those arm chair billionaires.
Only the blind don’t see how the loss of manufacturing jobs has accelerated the decline of the United States economy and values.
Findings link loss of millions of U.S. factory jobs to cheap imports
http://www.pressherald.com/2015/06/20/findings-link-loss-of-millions-of-u-s-factory-jobs-to-cheap-imports/
Kinda misleading, I thought the Mexicans were coming here for jobs. Oh well.
The great depression was extended because tariffs were placed on many goods.
Great Depression
https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Great_Depression
Excerpt: Frantic attempts to shore up the economies of individual nations through protectionist policies, such as the 1930 U.S. Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act and retaliatory tariffs in other countries, exacerbated the collapse in global trade.
Did the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Cause the Great Depression?
http://americastradepolicy.com/did-the-smoot-hawley-tariff-cause-the-great-depression/#.VYY85clNvFQ
The former American Big Three plus Japanese, Korean and German automakers have been making vehicles in the US as well as other locations for decades.
Don Trump he be importing and exporting slot machines from Nevada to New York to New Jersey.
Toyota is #1, VW is #2 and GM is #3 in world sales volumes.
There is a whole lot more involved, besides tariffs.