The Truth about Trade | Cato Institute

The Truth about Trade | Cato Institute: "Our manufacturers continue to set production and export records, and the United States is the world’s second-largest manufacturer (17.2 percent of total global output) and third-largest exporter. America also remains the world’s top destination for foreign direct investment ($384 billion in 2015 alone) — more than double second-place Hong Kong and almost triple third-place China. "



" For example, a recent Ball State study attributed almost 90 percent of all U.S. manufacturing-job losses since 2000 to productivity gains. “Had we kept 2000-levels of productivity and applied them to 2010-levels of production,” the authors write, “we would have required 20.9 million manufacturing workers. Instead, we employed only 12.1 million.” "



"The consumer gains from trade disproportionally accrue to America’s poor and middle class. A 2015 study by Pablo Fajgelbaum and Amit Khandelwal finds that these groups, because they concentrate spending in more-traded sectors such as food and clothing, enjoy almost 90 percent of the consumer benefits of trade."



"More than half of all imports (including those from China) are inputs and capital goods consumed by other American manufacturers to make globally competitive products."



"When the Steelworkers convinced President Obama to impose 35 percent tariffs on Chinese tires in 2009, the result was, even under the best assumptions, a few unionized jobs saved at a cost to U.S. consumers of $900,000 per job — precisely the type of crony-capitalist boondoggle that, in any form other than that of a hidden tax targeting a foreign “adversary,” would engender hostile political opposition from the right."



"the American “Big Three” automakers produce only five of the top 20 most “domestic” cars (defined by their total share of U.S. and Canadian auto parts) sold in the United States in 2016"



"government policy actively discourages Americans from finding work in burgeoning fields. Perhaps the most brazen example of such policies is the federal tax code’s business deduction for work-related education, which permits a worker to deduct education and training expenses from his taxable income, but only if they relate to his current job. Thus, a textilefactory worker can get a tax benefit for new training on the latest garment machine, but he cannot get the same benefit for night classes to become a certified IT specialist. Such a system discourages workers in dying fields from preparing themselves for a new career."



"multiple studies commissioned by the Labor Department have found that TAA participants are worse off, as measured by future wages and benefits, than similarly situated jobless individuals outside the program"