Posted on 09/09/2016 1:49:55 PM PDT by MichCapCon
If the government prevented people from shopping outside of their own town or state, they would be outraged and recognize it as limiting their freedom. If Michigan businesses were prevented from buying or selling their products to people from other states, most people would understand that to be economically destructive.
Yet when it comes to the issue of foreign trade a lot of people from both sides of the political spectrum are opposed to allowing a similar free flow of products and services between countries. That’s why the two main presidential candidates are able to run their campaigns with antitrade sentiments as key planks.
But international free trade is a good thing. It allows people to sell their products to a much larger group. It gives consumers more choices in what they are buying, making goods and services better and less costly because of the increased competition.
Antitrade sentiment often plays well politically in Michigan. Many people blame foreign trade for the loss of some jobs, though that was occurring before trade agreements were made and is more related to technological advances and labor laws. Even leftist economists at the Economic Policy Institute only blame NAFTA – the trade agreement most frequently cited as economically destructive – for the net loss of 43,600 jobs in Michigan, a state with 4.8 million jobs. This, of course, doesn’t make it any easier for the people who lost these jobs, but it nevertheless shows that even the highest estimates of the negative impact of NAFTA on Michigan workers can find only a minuscule effect.
But it is likely that trade leads to more jobs overall. A new report from The Heritage Foundation looks at trade as it relates to Michigan. In particular, it looks at the benefits from trade – the number of jobs supported by exports, foreign investment in the state, and jobs gained from trade agreements. Here are some facts from the report about trade in Michigan:
1. There are more than 14,500 Michigan businesses that export goods around the world, supporting almost 271,000 jobs.
2. Service exports have more than doubled in the last decade to $13.4 billion while total exports have increased to $53.2 billion. Transportation companies export $26 billion worth of equipment to 165 countries.
3. Since NAFTA was signed in 1994, the state has gained 281,700 jobs overall and has a lower unemployment rate.
4. Michigan is home to 1,733 automobile and auto parts companies, 26 percent of which are foreign owned.
5. The state imports $124 billion worth of goods, mostly from Canada and Mexico. This competition lowers the costs of goods for consumers and provides products for Michigan workers to sell.
6. Michigan has significantly increased its exports to Mexico (16 percent) and China (27 percent) in just the past three years.
7. The 30 percent steel tariffs imposed under the Bush administration harmed Michigan companies – the increase in cost made Michigan lose more jobs than all but three states.
Lowering trade barriers can provide new competition to businesses competing with foreign producers. But it also provides new opportunities for other local businesses, which might benefit from selling goods to new buyers in new markets. The historical evidence is overwhelming: Free trade always accompanies economic growth and prosperity, and countries that allow their people to take part are, on balance, much better off.
ok ace .... tell US about the DELL EMC merger which will put 5000 AMERICANS out of work and import a like number of foreign workers with visas... cheaper overseas labor....
WHAT THEFDOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH FREE TRADE...???
NOTHING
IT BRINGS MONEY TO THE BOTTOM LINE FOR CORPORATE OFFICERS AND POSSIBLY IF THE BOARD DETERMINES FOR THE SHAREHOLDERS
it is plain as day that NAFTA benefits MEXICO and CANADA to the detriment of USA workers...
dont tell me about tech advances and “service” job transition.... it’s SERVANT job tarnsition as good paying joibs disappear, corporations keep money offshore, dont do R+D asnd dont make domestic capital investments...
CHINA uses OUR TECHNOLOGY AND SLAVE LABOR to manufacture and sell us stuff. They steal thetechnology and then start chinese companies to compete against the companies they stole the tech from... watch the chines mobil invasion exapnd... with cheap clone iphones... no cost to develop the tech... just steal it...
That is just one example...
The idea of competitive advantage is being used to sell BS as “free trade”, which is only benefiting the global elite... Robots, AI and socialism are the final nails in the freedom coffin....
If the same foreign companies which trade with Michigan were in the US they probably would be considered monopolies under the anti-trust laws especially in China where the government finances and runs the companies. So why would we trade with a monopoly company without regulating them like we regulate a monopoly utility company? So if we regulated monopolist foreign companies like utilities then we would have them justify their costs (called rate base) and then award them a market rate of return on those costs (called weighted average cost of capital or WACC).
In China the government confiscates money from its people then uses that money to capitalize business enterprises. In the US the same company would have to raise money in capital markets (stocks, bonds, debentures, etc.) and pay their investors a rate of return. So such foreign companies are financed by kleptocratic regimes that don’t have to compete in the capital markets.
Why do so called free traders love monopolistic enterprises that do not have to prove that they sell their products in a competitive market or pay their investors a market rate of return on their money?
Do the trade agreements Michigan with Chinese companies require open and competitive markets? I bet not. Do they require that they don’t manipulate the exchange value of their money to exploit their trade agreements? Again, I bet not.
This is what Trump and his constituency are saying but which the phony free marketeers at conservative think tanks want to cast a blind eye to (such think tanks probably supported by the same big corporate interests that outsource their production overseas and want to end run anti trust laws by calling it free trade).
This is where the so-called free traders are ideological extremists who believe free trade is some sort of magic word that produces a utopia. It doesn’t and we should stop listening to phony free trade advocates and PHONY LIBERTARIANS.
EXCELLENT point!
No, they simply would remind you that we don’t have free trade with China and tell you that you are barking up the wrong tree.
We only have FREE TRADE between the States.
NAFTA, GATT, etc.. are COMMAND AND CONTROLED ECONOMIES.
Command and Control economies are NOT free trade where unelected multi-nationalist decide who wins and who loses
Please stop with the Gloablist/Establishment lie calling RIGGED TRADE DEALS free trade. Nothing could be further from the truth.
It’s NOT and ONLY free for them.
Our Republic slowly, like cancer, pays the ultimate price for these RIGGED agreements.
Globalist clap trap.....free trade is only good when the terms are well written and abided by......that hasn’t happened in a long tome
I think we should outsource all the hack agencies in DC. We could save a bunch. The Indians could probably do a better job too.
There is no such thing as “free trade”.
Actually, there is. It’s called the “black market.” Or, if you find that term objectionable (as some did when I used it years past), just imagine paying your neighbor’s kid 20 bucks to mow your lawn. That’s “free trade.”
But Hillary doesn’t have the same position as Trump.
Free trade is an oxymoron. There is no such thing. A free lunch is available at a Salvation Army soup kitchen. Pursuing free trade ensures the middle class ends up in the soup kitchen line.
Nice slogan, there. Now let’s get at the nut: how much more should I pay out of my wallet (thin as it is) in order to keep the “middle class” off the “soup kitchen line?”
We don’t have free trade! Very hard to ship to China. China requires you to make it there witha 50% Chinese partner. Enables then to get legal access to IP. If they cant get it they steal it. Alibaba does it everyday!
India 30% duty, South America 30% duty and many other countries charge duty as well. US does not!
So how is that free trade? Right it isn’t. Redistribution of American jobs and money period.
There's a huge difference. It's the latter which is preferred by the leftist oligarchs, and which has killed whole industries and millions of jobs in this country.
Guess which one Trump supports?
MAGA!
How are you so certain that the U.S. does not charge duties on the products from those countries/continents, when you don’t know that we don’t have free trade agreements with them? (Chile and CAFTA excepted).
And besides it has to go both ways. We have built in laws and regulations that other countries don’t have, Safety is important unless it is imported.
Yeah, we have pages of regulations on dust, and we should enter into FTA’s with countries that have the same number of pages of regulations on dust, or more. Oh, wait a minute.
It isn’t free trade. Not even close. It is managed trade. Managed by supra-national, unconstitutional bureaucracies that could care less if rules give advantage to other nations.
Only one entity is entitled to regulate international trade - that is our Congress via article I, section 8.
Both have “most favored nation” status and are part and parcel of the globalist cabal called WTO
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