Are Ohioans Leery of Trade?

The Plain Dealer ran an editorial recently that bemoaned the positions on US Trade Policy taken by several Ohio elected officials.  The editorial presumed that the policy we have in place now is in fact “free trade”.  At WIRE-Net, we beg to differ.  Our letter to the editor follows:

 

October 23, 2007

 

Cleveland Plain Dealer

To the Editor

 

While several of your conclusions in your October 21^st editorial regarding trade policy and protectionism were on the mark, much of your analysis was off-base.  

 

US trade bureaucrats have done a poor job of enforcing existing trade laws; tougher enforcement is needed, as you noted.  Our economic and trade policies could do more to encourage manufacturing innovation, and a retrained, more highly educated and skilled workforce.  We also need smarter investment in regions of the country that disproportionately feel the brunt of a rapidly changing economy, like NE Ohio.  All of these were part of the Bush Administration’s “Manufacturing In America” report from 2004, but precious little has been implemented.

 

You failed to recognize, as economist Alan Blinder noted last Spring on your editorial pages, that trade can have negative results for nations.  30% of the manufacturing job loss in the US can be traced to the huge and ever growing foreign trade deficit.  Much is at stake, not just “propping up uncompetitive industries”.  The US has lost more than 1 million manufacturing jobs, and several million other jobs in “downstream” industries like financial and consumer services due in large part to the trade policies of foreign governments, and our own inability to counter them.  When foreign governments win a 40% cost subsidy due to their currency manipulation, US firms are not playing on a level playing field.  When foreign governments use non-tariff barriers at the docks to prevent US products from entering their markets, then we do not have “free trade”. This is nothing short of foul trade.

 

However, Ohioans are not “leery of trade”, as you put it.  What we are leery of is a trade bureacracy that fails to enforce the rules, fails to hold foreign governments accountable, and that has led to the loss of good paying US jobs in industries that don’t need propping up, just a level playing field.  Our trade policy must create jobs in the US, encourage innovation and investment, and protect our national security.  Our policy makers have failed in each case.  What Ohioan and US taxpayers want is a “third way” in trade policy, one between protectionism and so called “free trade”, one that builds on US strengths and assets, but also is not afraid to confront flagrant violators of international trade laws.