Open markets good for U.S.

Orlando Sentinel: Between attacking the other party on most issues, some Republican and Democratic presidential candidates have found a common enemy: trade. They contend it has been hurting the U.S. economy.

There’s one problem with that contention: The statistics don’t back it up.

Trade as a share of the U.S. economy has increased by 130 percent since 1980, according to the free-market Cato Institute. Meanwhile, the economy has added 46 million jobs. The country’s average jobless rate has dropped from 7.3 percent in the 1980s to 5.1 percent this decade.

And while employment in U.S. manufacturing has fallen by 3 million jobs since 2000 — the evidence most often cited by politicians of trade’s negative impact — 90 percent of the losses occurred between 2000 and 2003, a period that included the last recession. Last year, U.S. manufacturers achieved records for output, profits and exports, according to Cato. And as U.S. manufacturers invested $56 billion abroad in plants and acquisitions in 2006, foreign manufactures invested $67 billion in the United States, according to the centrist Progressive Policy Institute.

New opportunites

Trade benefits the economy because it creates new opportunities for U.S. companies and investors to reach the 95 percent of the world’s people who live beyond U.S. boundaries. It spurs innovation and efficiency in U.S. businesses. It gives both businesses and consumers more choices and better prices.

Despite the overall gains in the U.S. economy that have coincided with increased trade, international competition also has forced down wages and benefits or cost jobs in some industries. But that’s an argument for more transitional help for those workers, instead of the economy-wide retreat on trade some candidates have suggested.

Congress and the president can provide that help by expanding a program that provides retraining and other temporary aid to manufacturing workers who lose their jobs to foreign competition. It should be made available for other displaced workers, such as computer programmers or call-center employees. And broader policies to improve health care and secure retirement benefits will help all workers face foreign competition with more confidence.