Our friends at the Economic Policy Institute have a new report tracking the number of lost or displaced jobs as a result of the United State’s trade deficit with Mexico.
In 1993, before the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect, the U.S. had a $1.6 billion trade surplus with Mexico, which supported 29,400 U.S. jobs. Since then, imports from Mexico have grown much faster than U.S. exports, resulting in large trade deficits that have displaced 682,900 jobs nationwide since 1994. The trade deficit with Mexico currently totals $97.2 billion.
For Pennsylvania, this trade deficit has cost us more than 26,000 jobs since 1994. That puts us in eighth place among the 50 states in the raw number of jobs displaced and 20th as a share of total employment.
Our friends at the Economic Policy Institute have a new report tracking the number of lost or displaced jobs as a result of the United State’s trade deficit with Mexico.
In 1993, before the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect, the U.S. had a $1.6 billion trade surplus with Mexico, which supported 29,400 U.S. jobs. Since then, imports from Mexico have grown much faster than U.S. exports, resulting in large trade deficits that have displaced 682,900 jobs nationwide since 1994. The trade deficit with Mexico currently totals $97.2 billion.
For Pennsylvania, this trade deficit has cost us more than 26,000 jobs since 1994. That puts us in eighth place among the 50 states in the raw number of jobs displaced and 20th as a share of total employment.
Supporters of NAFTA argued in the 1990s that it would create jobs. Now we’re hearing the same arguments being made to push a free trade agreement with South Korea.
We should have a moratorium on all trade agreements until we have in place a real U.S. manufacturing strategy, policies to lower our trade deficit, and meaningful provisions to protect and raise international labor and environmental standards.
You can read more about the EPI report in a press release today from the Keystone Research Center. We also have posted a table detailing jobs lost by congressional district across the state.