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Job-Killing Trade Deficits Soar under "Free Trade" Agreements

While President Obama's State of the Union reiterated the tired "free trade" = exports = jobs refrain, the newly-released government trade data for 2012 shows that job-eroding U.S. trade deficits have ballooned with "free trade" agreement (FTA) partners while declining with the rest of the world. Why? In part, because export growth has actually been slower under FTAs. Why then did Obama commit on Tuesday night to expand this deficit-boosting FTA model across both the Pacific and the Atlantic in the name of jobs?  Maybe he hasn't seen the data.  Here it is (click here for the PDF version): 

U.S. Trade Deficits Grow More Than 440% with FTA Countries, but Decline 7% with Non-FTA Countries

The aggregate U.S. trade deficit with FTA partners is more than five times as high as before the deals went into effect, while the aggregate deficit with non-FTA countries has actually fallen slightly.1 The key differences are soaring imports into the United States from FTA partners and lower growth in U.S. exports to those nations than to non-FTA nations. Incredibly, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce website states, “For those worried about the U.S. trade deficit, trade agreements are clearly the solution – not the problem.” Their pitch ignores the import surges contributing to growing deficits and job loss, while their export “data” is inflated, using tricks described below.

The aggregate trade deficit with FTA partners increased by more than $144 billion (inflation-adjusted) since the FTAs were implemented. In contrast, the aggregate deficit with all non-FTA countries decreased by more than $55 billion since 2006 (the median entry date of existing FTAs). Two reasons: a sharp increase in imports from FTA partners – notably Mexico and Canada under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – and significantly lower export growth to FTA partners than to non-FTA nations over the last decade. Using the Obama administration’s net exports-to-jobs ratiothe FTA trade deficit surge implies the loss of nearly one million American jobs. (Scroll to the bottom for a chart giving the country-by-country data.)  

Trade with Canada and Mexico (our first and third largest trade partners, respectively) contributed the most to the widening FTA deficit. Under NAFTA, the U.S. deficit with Canada ballooned and the small U.S. surplus with Mexico turned into a $100 billion-plus deficit. The trend persists under new FTAs – nine months into the Korea FTA, our deficit with Korea has jumped 26 percent. Reducing the massive trade deficit requires a new trade agreement model, not more of the same.

U.S. Export Growth Falters under FTAs

Growth of U.S. exports to countries that are not FTA partners has exceeded U.S. export growth to countries that are FTA partners by 38 percent over the last decade.2 Between 2002 and 2012, U.S. goods exports to FTA partner countries grew by an annual average rate of only 4.8 percent. Goods exports to non-FTA partner countries, by contrast, grew by 6.6 percent per year on average. Since 2006, when the number of FTA partner countries nearly doubled with the implementation of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the FTA export growth “penalty” has only increased. Since then, average U.S. export growth to non-FTA partner countries has topped average export growth to FTA partners by 46 percent.

Corporate FTA Boosters Use Errant Methods to Claim Higher Exports under FTAs

Members of Congress will invariably be shown data by defenders of our status quo trade policy that appears to indicate that FTAs have generated an export boom. Indeed, to promote congressional support for new NAFTA-style FTAs, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) have funded an entire body of research designed to create the appearance that the existing pacts have both boosted exports and reversed trade deficits with FTA partner countries. This work relies on several methodological tricks that fail basic standards of accuracy:

  • Ignoring imports: U.S. Chamber of Commerce studies regularly omit mention of soaring imports under FTAs, instead focusing only on exports. But any study claiming to evaluate the net impact of trade deals must deal with both sides of the trade equation. In the same way that exports are associated with job opportunities, imports are associated with lost job opportunities when they outstrip exports, as dramatically seen under FTAs.
  • Counting “re-exports:” NAM has misleadingly claimed that the United States has a manufacturing surplus with FTA nations by counting as U.S. exports goods that actually are made overseas – not by U.S. workers. NAM’s data includes “re-exports” – goods made elsewhere that are shipped through the United States en route to a final destination. Determining FTAs’ impact on U.S. jobs requires counting only U.S.-made exports.
  • Omitting major FTAs: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has repeatedly claimed that U.S. export growth is higher to FTA nations that to non-FTA nations by simply omitting FTAs that do not support their claim. One U.S. Chamber of Commerce study omitted all FTAs implemented before 2003 to estimate export growth. This excluded major FTAs like NAFTA that comprised more than 83 percent of all U.S. FTA exports. Given NAFTA’s leading role in the 441 percent aggregate FTA deficit surge, its omission vastly skews the findings.
  • Failing to correct for inflation: U.S. Chamber of Commerce studies that have claimed high FTA export growth have not adjusted the data for inflation. This artificially magnifies claimed FTA export gains.
  • Comparing apples and oranges: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has claimed higher U.S. exports under FTAs by using two completely different methods to calculate the growth of U.S. exports to FTA partners (an unweighted average) versus non-FTA partners (a weighted average). This inconsistency creates the false impression of higher export growth to FTA partners by giving equal weight to FTA countries that are vastly different in importance to U.S. exports (e.g. Canada, where U.S. exports exceed $244 billion, and Bahrain, where they do not reach $2 billion), despite accounting for such critical differences for non-FTA countries.

Chart: U.S. Trade Deficit Rises by $144 Billion with FTA Partners, Falls by $55 Billion with Rest of the World

FTA Partner

Entry Date

Pre-FTA Trade Balance

2012 Balance

Change in Balance Since FTA

Israel*

1985

($1.0)

($12.4)

($11.4)

Canada

1989

($23.3)

($79.7)

($56.5)

Mexico

1994

$2.5

($101.2)

($103.7)

Jordan

2001

$0.3

$0.5

$0.2

Chile

2004

($1.9)

$7.9

$9.8

Singapore

2004

$0.7

$6.9

$6.2

Australia

2005

$7.2

$19.3

$12.1

Bahrain

2006

($0.1)

$0.4

$0.6

El Salvador

2006

($0.2)

$0.2

$0.4

Guatemala

2006

($0.5)

$1.0

$1.5

Honduras

2006

($0.7)

$0.9

$1.6

Morocco

2006

$0.1

$1.3

$1.2

Nicaragua

2006

($0.7)

($1.7)

($1.0)

Dominican Republic

2007

$0.6

$2.4

$1.8

Costa Rica

2009

$1.2

($5.4)

($6.6)

Oman

2009

$0.5

$0.3

($0.2)

Peru

2009

($0.2)

$1.6

$1.8

Korea

2012

($15.0)

($17.9)

($2.9)

Colombia

2012

($9.8)

($10.3)

($0.5)

Panama

2012

$7.6

$8.7

$1.1

         

FTA TOTAL:

 

($32.7)

($177.2)

($144.4)

Non-FTA TOTAL:

[2006]

($776.1)

($720.7)

$55.4

FTA Deficit INCREASE:  441%             Non-FTA Deficit DECREASE:  7%

Source: U.S. International Trade Commission. Units: billions of 2012 dollars. (*Measured since 1989 due to data availability.)



1The change in the aggregate U.S. trade deficit with FTA partners is found by comparing 1) the combined inflation-adjusted U.S. trade balance in goods for all current FTA partners in the year before the FTA entered into force, and 2) the combined U.S. trade balance with those same countries in 2012. The change in the aggregate trade deficit with non-FTA countries is found by comparing 1) the combined inflation-adjusted U.S. trade balance in goods in 2005 (the year before the median entry date of existing FTAs) for all countries that are not current FTA partners, and 2) the combined U.S. trade balance with those same countries in 2012. All data comes from U.S. International Trade Commission, “Interactive Tariff and Trade DataWeb,” accessed February 11, 2013. Available at: http://dataweb.usitc.gov/.

2All figures in this section use an inflation-adjusted weighted average to find average annual growth rates of domestic exports for both FTA partner countries and non-FTA partner countries. All data comes from U.S. International Trade Commission, “Interactive Tariff and Trade DataWeb,” accessed February 11, 2013. Available at: http://dataweb.usitc.gov/.

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Comments

Wayne

Is EVERYONE trying to destroy America? It would seem so.

W. R. Knight

FTA has dramatically increased U.S. exports in one area - jobs.

W. R. Knight

Just like air escaping from a balloon, FTA allows American wealth to escape to other countries. It wouldn't be so bad if that wealth went to improve the living standards of impoverished people in other nations, but that's not what's happening. Instead, the lost wealth, which is coming largely from the American middle class, is going to line the pockets of the rich and powerful.

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Free trade is not depending on application but on justice.

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I guess I have selected a mind blowing and interesting blog.

Newsworld

It is difficult to even start talking about free trade since all the comparisons are based on a false premise that free trade is about trade. Historically trade was about trading something you had for something your trading partner did not have. It never was about sending your jobs to other countries. Rome outsourced their labor and it collapsed but they never called the process trade.

Free trade is mainly about moving production from place to place anywhere in the world for the sake of cheaper labor. Free trade economics is about divorcing production from investment and creating an economy based on making money on money instead of making things.

Human beings as workers become the main commodity being traded. Workers are put on a world block to compete with one another for the same jobs. One CEO of a large corporations said his company could no longer make any money in the U.S.A. even if his employees worked for nothing.

Free trade is economic insanity. The core process is is based on lower and lower wages across the board. It is a road to nowhere.

It makes no sense to even use the word trade in discussing it.

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It's hard to even begin talking about free trade since most of the comparisons are derived from a false premise that free trade is all about commerce. Historically commerce was about trading something you'd for something your trading partner didn't have. Their work was outsourced by Rome plus it failed but they never known as the procedure commerce.

Free trade is mostly around transferring production from spot to put any place in the planet for the benefit of cheaper labour. Free trade economics is all about creating an economy based on earning money on cash rather than making matters and divorcing generation.

Human beings as workers become the primary commodity. Workers are put to compete with one another for the exact same occupations. One CEO of a big corporations said his firm could not make any cash in the U.S.A. even if his workers worked for nothing.

Free trade is economic madness.

It creates no sense to make use of in discussing it, the term commerce.

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