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That ‘giant sucking sound’ of American jobs being lost

Christopher Curran
Posted 5/20/15

During the presidential campaign of 1992, billionaire businessman H. Ross Perot, an independent candidate, warned the nation about the deleterious effects of the possible passage of the North …

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That ‘giant sucking sound’ of American jobs being lost

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During the presidential campaign of 1992, billionaire businessman H. Ross Perot, an independent candidate, warned the nation about the deleterious effects of the possible passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Perot stated its passage would continue to hasten the end of America’s manufacturing dominance and would add to the destruction of the American middle class. He was right.

The following year, the newly elected president, William Jefferson Clinton, signed the agreement into law. As a result, domestic manufacturing jobs were lost to Mexico and Canada. The same will occur if the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is passed through Congress and signed in to law.

Free trade only works when it is fair trade and other countries do not control their currencies. But when they adjust their monetary value to artificial levels in order to favor their exports, as they do in China and Japan, the United States loses. Additionally, when participating countries limit the amount of imports from America while over-loading excessive amounts of goods exported to the United States, we endure glaring trade deficits. Also, when they do not use costly yet vitally important environmental safeguards in their manufacturing processes, they can produce a lower cost per unit product. Thus, this renders similar domestically produced goods non-competitive.

Perilously, Asian producers also add to dangerous pollution in the world’s atmosphere. Furthermore, when the goods produced abroad do not adhere to the same standards of product safety and quality control as goods produced here at home, American consumers are purchasing dangerous, shoddy and possibly injurious products. Also, the comparatively low Pacific-Rim manufacturing wages have led to the stagnation of the remaining manufacturing wages in the United States.

Simply, free trade has not been fair trade, and consequently we have lost many jobs, subjected our citizens to questionable products, adversely affected our long-term economy and severely contracted our middle class. In the words of the aforementioned Ross Perot, the wrong trade deal causes a “giant sucking sound” of American jobs being lost.

Now, President Barack Obama is pushing the passage of the TPP through Congress. This agreement would give the White House “fast-track authority” to forge trade compacts with 12 countries, mostly Asian, and possibly more nations in future years.

According to the Gannett Newspapers, the most conspicuous problem is the unbridled executive ability granted to Obama and his successors in committing America to separate covenants with member nations of the TPP.

Forbes Magazine added to the speculation about the TPP. They stated: “Fast-track legislation is forcing Congress to relinquish its constitutional authority to review and amend a trade deal,” and “[this deal] will most likely lead to trade diversion rather than trade creation.” Also, they proposed the deal may “fragment markets as much as national commercial policies did in the past.”

Other than international corporations that will directly benefit from giving the president this much autonomy in making trade covenants, many business entities and associations question removing Congress from the trade equation regarding country-to-country deals under TPP.

Consequently, representatives and senators who are aligned with corporate political contributors are full-throttle on the side of the Democrat president.

On the contrary, members of President Obama’s own party have condemned the TPP and the inherent authority it provides for the executive. Usual allies to the president, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusettes, both Democrats, have vehemently opposed this prospective deal as a job killer. Uncharacteristically, the president has verbally assailed both senators as being shortsighted and illogical. One must wonder whether the president’s bitterness is related to the fact that the prospective pact will further empower him and he needs some sort of legacy to somehow increase the lackluster value of his term in office.

TPP, like its forerunner NAFTA, will adversely affect existing domestic manufacturers and further cause the erosion of the American middle class. Since NAFTA was signed into law in 1993, our trade deficit with member countries Mexico and Canada has ballooned from $6.5 billion to $130 billion today. Yet, this administration wishes to further extent NAFTA to include Latin American countries as well. Mexico has devalued its currency to favor its trading position with the United States. Our southern neighbor has controlled the rate of exchange on its exported goods, which of course benefits Mexico greatly and disfavors us. This example of free trade is certainly not fair trade. If this agreement is extended to all of Latin America, all of our nation’s deficits will be much worse.

Adding to the absurdity of these free trade agreements is the often forgotten fact that the goods we import are in most cases not regulated for safety and quality, as are the goods produced here at home. For example, China has the worst record of all our trading partners for the dangerousness of what they export to our country.

According to Consumer Reports, China has sent toothpaste laced with diethylene glycol, which is an ingredient in anti-freeze. The Chinese Communist Republic also sent “Thomas and Friends” toys with poisonous lead paint and wallboard with sulfurous content three times the acceptable limit. Also, they sent us pet food spiked with melamine, which endangered the lives of our pets. These are just a few examples of the heinous disregard the Chinese have for the health of the American consumer or man’s best friend. In fact, 60 percent of all the consumer products recalled in North America are from China. Consumer Reports has also alerted its readers recently that thousands of dangerous Chinese car tires are next.

TPP will turn a cluster of 12 countries into another imbalanced import/export partner, like China, where America will once again be weakened and short-changed.

Since 1980, trade with Asia has cost the United States 42 percent of its manufacturing jobs. Additionally, our nation’s debt has skyrocketed to over $18 trillion in no small part to our lack of manufacturing strength. This year’s trade deficit with China alone is estimated to be $350 billion.

Sadly, according to the World Trade Organization, children in China, Vietnam and Malaysia are being used as human cogs in those countries’ manufacturing machine. The WTO has named the use of children in Asian industrial production as the “Race to the Bottom.” Children start their 12-hour days and six day weeks at age 12. They are prohibited from furthering their education after they obtain their “work card” and we Americans consume those products without a thought of whose little hands are forced to produce them.

Furthermore, according to the environmental organization One Climate, manufacturing emissions from China have quadrupled in just the last decade. There are no “stack scrubbers” or “recycling filters” anywhere to be seen in Pacific-Rim manufacturing. Obviously, their atmosphere is our atmosphere, so we are being slowly poisoned through the air.

The bottom line to the proposed TPP, NAFTA, and our overall current state of international trade is that the United States has made bad deals in the past and is trying to make another one now. America’s Middle Class has shrunk, wages are stagnant, and our deficit has skyrocketed. To a great degree, America’s descent as a nation is due to our policy of free trade, which is not fair trade.

Essentially, fair trade requires equivalent amounts of tonnage exchanged between the trading countries. Also, fair trade would make mandatory prohibitions of monetary value manipulation. Additionally, fair trade would insist on the same environmental standards for production in trading countries. Perhaps most importantly, fair trade would necessitate the same manufacturing requirements for quality and safety. As long as free trade is not fair trade, a little protectionism would be a good thing for the United States.

Unquestionably, if TPP is passed, Ross Perot’s giant sucking sound will be heard once again! 

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  • RobertBarrows

    Along these same lines...

    ...as the Senate gets ready to debate Fast-Track, you might also want to ask your Senator to take a look at a poem called “It used to be Made in America.” You can see the poem online at www.itusedtobemadeinamerica.com

    The poem is about the loss of jobs and the consequences of outsourcing manufacturing to other countries.

    Here is a link to some more information about it:http://www.prlog.org/12457209

    Thursday, May 21, 2015 Report this