Working People Pay for “Free” Trade

USW International President Leo W. Gerard and progressive talk show host Leslie Marshall this week discussed the dire ramifications of America’s failed trade deals, including billions of dollars in trade deficits and the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Three of the most devastating agreements, NAFTA with Mexico, the PNTR (Permanent Normal Trade Relations) with China, and KORUS with Korea, set the stage for what will come if the United States signs on to the next major trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

“We can look at them in a historical perspective,” said Gerard, “We don’t have to say ‘this is what might happen.’ We can say ‘this is what did happen.’ And in every one of those cases we went from relatively balanced trade to huge, record-breaking trade deficits year after year after year.”

This has cost America dearly when it comes to stable, middle class jobs, particularly in manufacturing.

“These trade deals allow corporations to do an analysis of where’s the place they can work where they can pay the least wages with the least economic interference,” said Gerard. This pits American workers against workers in other countries in a race to the bottom.

Gerard refuted the idea that this competition somehow benefits working people because it might lower the price of some manufactured goods. “These deals aren’t any good if you can’t buy the damn thing that used to be made in America. You can’t buy an American-made furnace—because you don’t have a job. You can’t buy an American-made car—because you don’t have a job.”

It’s essential that everyone contact their members of Congress, said Gerard, urging them to only support trade that has built-in safeguards: for jobs, for the environment and for the American economy as a whole.

“There’s lots of ways to give us a balanced trade agenda,” said Gerard, “if we have the political will to do it.”

To hear the full conversation, click on the link below.

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