We need exports and imports. We need jobs. And we need more jobs than can be provided by exports. In other words,at a very minimum we need net exports. But we don’t have them. We have net imports.
Here’s the problem. In 1993, we signed into law the North Amreican Free Trade Agreement. It broke down tariff barriers between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.What has been the result? Pretty simple. Low wage countries sell their stuff here and American companies make low cost stuff there…and also sell it here!
Net exports to Mexico during the period since NAFTA began have dropped by more than $2 trillion. This means a loss to Mexico of more than 1.1 million American jobs since 1993. China is even worse. Since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001, our import-export ratio with China has cost the United States about 3 million jobs.
So China and Mexico alone are responsible for the loss of over 4.1 million jobs. If those jobs were being done here in the United States, our current unemployment rate would be less than 7% even with all the job losses and the layoffs and the deliberate non-hiring by corporations to try to politicize unemployment for the 2012 election.
So, what about tariffs? We hear that the Smoot-Hawley Tariff was a disaster for the American economy in 1930. Crap. Here are the facts.
BATR 2020 Election News
