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Protection Racket: Trade barriers won't help South Carolina's economy--or America's
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| Contributor | Tony82 |
| Last Edited | Tony82 Feb 07, 2004 01:37pm |
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| Category | Commentary |
| News Date | Saturday, February 7, 2004 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Blue-collar workers milling around in unemployment lines, while lamenting the loss of their jobs to foreign lands, will always draw a political response. And that's what's happening in today's Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina. In 1992 the slogan for the party was "It's the economy, stupid." This year it's "jobs, jobs, jobs," and nearly all the major candidates are promising that higher barriers against trade will bring the jobs back.
John Edwards is articulating this message better than anyone else, and it may push him over the top in the Palmetto State. He is promising to "reform" the North American Free Trade Agreement. He rails against free trade, while promising "fair trade." He wants to grant or take away tax breaks based on whether a company is keeping jobs in the country. And unlike his Democratic rivals, he has a personal story to animate his protectionist message. "My father worked in a textile mill all his life," Mr. Edwards said recently in South Carolina. "I worked in it myself when I was young. And what happens is, when these mills close--and you have seen it, personally--what happens is it just devastates families, devastates communities, and the jobs are just leaving and going overseas."
The antitrade message is resonating in South Carolina, where some 70,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost there over the last three years. The national economy has turned a corner, but in the Palmetto State it still feels like a recession.
What no politician dares say about trade, however, is that it's not about protecting jobs. It's about the right to freely sell your goods or to freely buy the goods you want. It's also good economic policy because trade is a relentless force that, through competition, drives down prices. Trade is about protecting and enriching consumers.
Bill Clinton didn't sign Nafta to save mill jobs in South Carolina. He signed it so every American would be able to pay less for the cars, fruit, timber and other produ |
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