Rethink Trade……….
Donald Trump promised that he would “stop the jobs from leaving America.”However, since 2017, at least 300,000 jobs have been lost due to outsourcing and trade.And that only counts workers that the Labor Department approved for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA). We know TAA represents an undercount of the damage. Workers must know about the program, apply, and then prove that trade caused their job loss in order to receive assistance.The Economic Policy Institute suggests that total trade job loss is much higher — estimating 700,000 jobs lost to China alone in Trump’s first two years. And, we know that more workers filed for government aid for trade job loss through the TAA in 2019 than in 2017.Adding insult to injury, Trump has actually rewarded some of the worst outsourcers with hundreds of billions in federal contracts.Just considering the top-100 government contractors since 2017, more than $425 billion in our tax dollars went to firms that offshored jobs.Eight of the top ten recipients of government contracts since 2017 are government-certified as job offshorers:Boeing outsourced 5,800 jobs since 2017 and received over $81 billion in federal contracts from FY17-FY19General Electric outsourced 2,046 jobs since 2017 and received over $9 billion in federal contracts from FY17-FY19United Technologies outsourced 1,572 jobs since 2017 and received over $15 billion in federal contracts from FY17-FY19Plus our trade deficit keeps growing.In the first eight months of 2020, it was 22% higher than during the same period in 2016. In August, the U.S. had the largest monthly trade deficit in goods ever. These are just a few of the reasons we are building a movement to replace our corporate-rigged trade deals and rethink our trade policies so they prioritize the needs of working people.You can learn more about all of this and more on our Rethinking Trade podcast or at Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.Thanks for your time,Andi |
