Bal Harbour, FL
The 1994 manufactured goods trade deficit of $156 billion, an all-time record, is dramatic proof that America's trade policies are not working. Moreover, the 1994 merchandise trade deficit was the second largest ever recorded.
In the last ten years, the total of U.S. trade deficits has exceeded $1 trillion. This persistent pattern has contributed significantly to declining real wages and to increasing job insecurity.
Administration and congressional leaders of both parties show eagerness to address the federal budget deficit. Yet the trade deficit goes largely ignored except for efforts to increase exports -- despite the certain knowledge that we cannot "export" our way out of this huge deficit.
Most of its victims are middle-income working people. It is estimated that the manufactured goods trade deficit represents a loss of some three million American jobs.
U.S. trade policy has relied on unfettered trade and capital mobility. In practice, that is little more than a rationale for promoting the interests of multinational corporations.
Meanwhile, most other countries manage trade and investment to their own advantage, regardless of market dictates. The United States is virtually the only country in the world that willingly exposes its industrial base to unlimited erosion by imports.
Some have argued that a strategy based on increasing American exports would be enough to reduce the trade deficit. Indeed, the defenders of NAFTA, GATT/WTO, most favored nation trading status for China, and other so-called successes in trade policy have relied on statistics on export growth to justify their position.
The new trade deficit figures, which demonstrate that imports have been growing faster than exports, show that this argument has no relationship to the facts.
A vigorous American trade policy that defends the interests of the great majority of people within our borders is long overdue.
One element of such a policy should be extending international trade rules to provide stronger protections for workers' rights. The rules should be at least as strong as the rules that protect property rights. They should ensure that working people of developing and developed countries are not forced into a cutthroat competition to the detriment of all.
A good starting point for this framework would be effective linkage of U.S. trade to International Labor Organization standards on forced labor, employment discrimination, child labor, and the right to organize and bargain collectively.
In addition to workers' rights, a larger reorientation of trade policy should include real trade reciprocity and trade deficit reduction. Otherwise, the United States will experience even more destructive trade deficits and greater loss of good jobs.