Bush: Protectionism will cost U.S. jobs

Bush: Protectionism will cost U.S. jobs

www.msnbc.msn.com

"More exports support better and higher-paying jobs," the president said. "And to keep our economy expanding, we need to keep expanding trade."
". . . the federal government is providing substantial funding for trade adjustment assistance that helps Americans make the transition from one job to the next," Bush said.
"Expanding trade will help our economy grow," Bush said. "So I call on Congress to act quickly and get these agreements to my desk."

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I may not know all about international trade and job security in the United States, but isn't President Bush essentially saying here, 'We're exporting American jobs to other countries to help the economy, which means lots of Americans are going to lose their jobs in the short term. Here, have some money to help you get over it.'

This sort of thing has already happened in Australia to a lot of companies.
Bush is saying that outsourcing will 'improve trade relations' or some crap like that, which in the long term will 'provide more jobs for Americans as export demand increases'; but in reality companies outsource because they can pay people in India/Panama/South Korea/etc a whole lot less than those in America.

Unless I am totally wrong about this and outsourcing jobs to other countries increases the amount of jobs available in the U.S.?



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Originally posted by watch_the_rocks

Unless I am totally wrong about this and outsourcing jobs to other countries increases the amount of jobs available in the U.S.?

I seem to have read it in a different way to you. I didn't see any mention of outsourcing, just exporting. When he talks of exports I don't think he's talking of sending jobs overseas (typically in the service industry), I believe he's talking about actual exports (physical products).

The gist of it seems to be that protectionism harms the american economy as the better, higher paid jobs are generally in companies which export goods rather than those which solely supply the domestic market. He's probably right, you put tariffs on goods to protect US workers and the countries who suffer from these tariffs will simply do the same to you, harming your exports.

You guys are all for capitalism and free trade so I don't see the problem with outsourcing anyway.

reply to post by watch_the_rocks


He uses exports as an example even went we even know that our trade deficit shows that we have become a nation of importers rather than exporters.

The only ones that will lose here if we become protectionist are the big corporate that are making the record profits while outsourcing to third world countries to bring their cheap made goods as imports.

That is who he is protecting, after all the biggest now employer in the US walmart will have to lay off workers if we stop importing and buying their Chinese cheap goods.

I guess these are the jobs Mr. Bush is talking about and wants to protect.

Ayep, a total misunderstanding of basic economics once again right here on ATS. All protectionism creates is MORE PROTECTIONISM. The great depression was largely caused by protectionism! Once a country becomes protectionist, the other countries are obliged to become protectionist to defend their interests. This is called a trade war. Pretty soon international commerce grinds to a halt.

en.wikipedia.org...-Hawley_Tariff_Act

I know exactly what he meant, expand the exports. So therefore, bring thos illegal aliens down to America, it is good for you!

You know, as most Americans know, this guy elected as President of the United States of America T-2 has cost so much for so many. Thank goodness he'll soon be out. Hopefully, the next President's pledge to Citizens of the USA will include NO PARDON for George W. Bush.

Dallas

reply to post by Dallas


Even though this is one of the few if not only issues I agree with Bush on, I fully agree that Bush should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law once he's out of office-if only to afford him a more humane death than the mob will offer him.

How can we export more when most of our economy is base in imports? I don’t see protectionism bad when it comes to protecting what is left of our production power.

Free trade is killing America because it has open the door for corporate American to take away the jobs that once were what made America great after World War II.

Even the last staple of the American industry is fast leaving this nation, the steel industry.

Now China is to compete against us on steel.

The International trade agreements that have been promoted by past and present administrations to favor corporate America has only increased the quantity of cheap imports in favor of giving away our production power to third world countries like China.

In Michigan alone, nearly 55,000 manufacturing jobs have gone to China since 2001.

In accepting these trade deals, we have acquiesced to one-way policies that benefit our trading partners rather than our own manufacturers.

.

www.detnews.com...

A nation can not live on buying alone because the time will come when money will not be available to buy even cheap imports with all the good jobs going oversea.

While we fill our stores with Chinese goods and our houses this trading partner is not playing nice to our imports when they come to their shores.

They no only use unfair tax practices but they also devalue their currency so American imports lay wasted away in Chinas stores.

I think Mr. Bush like many other presidents that are nothing but run by corporate American has become oblivious of the dangers that the American gives away in manufacturing is doing to our nation.





[edit on 14-10-2007 by marg6043]

Protectionism is a double-edged sword. Good for some, bad for others.

An example Marg brought up, steel, is a good one. The US put a tariff on steel imports around 5 years ago, to protect the US steel industry. Sure it was great for the steel manufacturers, but not so good for the thousands of people in manufacturing that lost their jobs due to the loss of a competitive edge on their exports.

Members of the Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition Steel Task Force (CITAC STF) announced findings today from a study that reveals that higher steel prices — caused in large part by the Section 201 steel tariffs imposed in March 2002 — resulted in the loss of nearly 200,000 American jobs.

The study, "The Unintended Consequences of U.S. Steel Import Tariffs: A Quantification of the Impact during 2002," shows that more American workers lost their jobs in 2002 to higher steel costs than the total number employed by the U.S. steel industry. It reveals that the lost jobs represent approximately $4 billion in lost wages over ten months (February - November) last year.

www.citac.info...

Somebody is going to suffer, the hard part is deciding who gets the pointy end of the stick.

[edit on 14-10-2007 by Duzey]

As China steel industry picks up and our steel trade deficit keeps growing we may see also the lost of yet, another American industry to China.

Sad, but that is what is happening and we may talk and shared our views of this phenomena that is killing our home base industry but nobody cares as long as Wal-Mart offers a cheap deal at the supermarkets.

Sad, but I wonder when no longer it will be available any middle class jobs to support the spending frenzy in our nation for imports.

That may be happening right now as more retailers keep complaining of American spending habits changing due to the housing crash and the credit card crunch.

I hate to break it to you, but the US steel industry has been in decline for a while now, and it's not all China's fault.

Look at what happened in Pittsburgh in the 1980's.

reply to post by Duzey


And you don't think we were importing low-priced foreign steel in the 80s?

The US has been a net importer of steel for almost 50 years, so I bet the answer is yes, the US has been importing steel at lower prices for quite some time. I'm merely pointing out that China is not the sole reason for the decline of this particular industry. Wasn't it the European countries and Japan that were blamed in the 80's?

Perhaps you do not want to blame china for the dying of the steel industry, but the truth is that during the last 50 years we have been importing steel but is now in the last 8 years since China becoming a big force industrially that we can see the effects of yet another industry run over by a foreign nation.

Our Steel industry is going to die just like many other American makers of jobs that has been dying in our nation due to outsourcing and our own government sell out of American.

Is not going to take another 50 years is happening now.

the indirect steel trade deficit grew to 9.5 million net tons in 2006, after being relatively stable in 2003-2005. However, while the indirect steel trade deficit for this sector rose modestly from the 2003-2005 sector average of 8.7 million net tons (which was 22 percent below the sector deficit in 2002), the indirect steel trade deficit in 2006 remained well short of the sector’s record deficits in 2001-2002.

]

from the link I gave above.

China is killing our steel industry through indirect imports of steel because they offer their steel at cheaper prices than our own base industry can compete.

That is my point, still we let China get our nation bombarded with cheap goods in favor of our own home base produced goods.

This is getting worst now in the last few years.

indirect steel imports from China last year (6.1 million net tons) increased 20 percent from the level in 2005. Moreover, our 5.5 million net tons indirect steel trade deficit with China in 2006 was the largest deficit with any country, and was 3.9 million net tons greater than in 1999.

You know what is the worst thing about the steel coming from China's home base industry . . . that our own base industry can not compete with them, because our steel is superior in quality than the Chinese is.

So I guess indirect sells of cheap and perhaps low quality steel is now getting into our own nation to be used to build from cars to about anything that steel is needed.

What more are we going to let China get away with or our own government under the worst thing that is happening to US home base industries, Free trade.

Let understand that Free trade while supposedly helping third word countries bloom and that is a good thing, but is at the expenses of our own nations once production power.

While Mr. Bush talks about American exports he do not clarify what is becoming of our own exports when competing with free trade that has become a danger to our own nations security and well being.

We have done nothing to protect our own nations wealth because imports are out of control, our own trade deficits is enough to show that when you compare to the exports.







[edit on 15-10-2007 by marg6043]

Trade deficit with other nations.

In 2006, the U.S. trade deficit with Europe was $142.538 billion. With Canada, the deficit was $75.085 billion. With Latin America, it was $112.579 billion (of which $67.303 billion was with Mexico). The deficit with Asia and Pacific was $409.765 billion (of which $233.087 billion was with China and $90.966 billion was with Japan). With the Middle East, the deficit was $36.112 billion, and with Africa the U.S. trade deficit was $62.192 billion. The trade deficit with OPEC nations was $106.260 billion.

.

www.americanmachinist.com...

Just speaking from personal experience.................

I work in a Steel Workers Union shop in the Midwest and I was laid off a week ago. The company I work for makes electrical meter boxes and this is the second layoff this year. First one eliminated 100 job positions and this recent one was another 45 out of a 400 employee workforce.

And yes, they have chosen to outsource much of the work we used to perform here.

So maybe Bush or one of his associates could tell me where to find one of these higher paying jobs he speaks of.