International trade and American jobs
(R-Maine)
Despite recent indications that our economy is beginning to show signs of emerging from the longest and deepest recession since the Great Depression, we continue to face significant challenges – and so far this has been a jobless recovery, which means that for millions of families, it is no recovery at all.
According to the Maine Department of Labor, over 30,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in our great state – where such losses have a devastating impact, particularly on small towns. Tragically, these lost jobs have been some of the best paying work in the country. The average manufacturing worker earns a weekly wage of $725, which is 20 percent higher than the national average.
It is no coincidence that this withering of our country’s once-unparalleled manufacturing base took place during a period of increases in imports from large, often poorly regulated low-cost foreign producers. Import competition from – and in some cases, off-shoring of entire production lines to – countries with low wages, poor labor standards, and lax environmental laws has undoubtedly played a significant role in the decline of American manufacturing, and has deservedly generated considerable resistance to further trade liberalization.
For this reason, I support the President’s goal of doubling exports to support 2 million American jobs over the next five years and I implored the Administration to closely link export expansion with a serious effort to enforce trade laws and combat practices that harm U.S. companies. Increasing exports is imperative to creating high-quality, well-paying jobs and helping our economy recover. In fact, according to the President’s Trade Agenda, which was released on Monday, the U.S. Commerce Department estimates that “over 10 million jobs were supported by exports in 2008 and doubling exports from 2009 to 2014 could help exports support millions more jobs” that, on average, provide better wages and benefits than jobs not associated with exporting. As Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I firmly believe that exporting should be central to generating employment in this country and I commend the Administration for creating the National Export Initiative to provide greater focus when it comes to cabinet-level coordination to grow U.S. exports.
However, we must not allow this focus on export promotion and financing to divert attention from the equally critical priority of compelling other governments to live up to their commitments under existing trade agreements. Only four percent of American firms are currently exporting and to succeed in the President’s goal of doubling exports to support 2 million American jobs, we must give greater assurances to U.S. manufacturing workers and businesses that trade agreements will be consistently and vigorously enforced.
Indeed, as the President unveils the 2010 Trade Agenda and works to develop the National Export Initiative, I urge the Administration to coordinate closely with Congress to develop a detailed plan for enforcing international trade laws and addressing tariffs and non-tariff barriers at our national borders. The President’s Trade Agenda notes that “a strong dispute settlement system gives countries an incentive to negotiate earnestly to avoid the risk of litigation,” and a detailed enforcement plan would give greater assurances to manufacturing workers and businesses that unfair trade practices such as currency manipulation, infringement of intellectual property rights, and labor and environmental exploitation would be consistently challenged by USTR in formal dispute resolution cases. It would also pressure foreign governments to provide greater transparency in how they use trade remedies against U.S. firms and insist on a rules-based trading system. Such a plan could serve as a template for future trade negotiations, including those just beginning on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and would provide much-needed direction for Congress and American entrepreneurs when it comes to opening foreign markets to U.S. goods and services.
We must vigorously fight back against a tide of job losses to overseas competitors, and help companies that are creating jobs here at home to supply American-made goods and services to the 95 percent of the world’s customers who live outside of our borders.
