Tony Zirkle for Congress

Visitor #46522

International Trade/NAFTA

As an international economics major, I believe in free trade that is fair. Societies on the macro scale almost always benefit. However, when trade policies fail to take into account the local shocks to jobs, great harm does result. Many of the democrats wish to cancel various trade agreements. They would do well to look back in history in the 1920s at the Smoot-Hawley Tarriffs that led to a trade war which eventually put us in the Great Depression.

In constitutional commerce clause interpretations, the courts have allowed local governments to discriminate when they are a market participant. In a similar manner, I believe that jobs can be preserved when the domestic production is only used for domestic consumption and when it is in no way exported, especially in areas that are vital to national security such as food production and steel, which is directly tied to the war-making capacity of a nation.

My proposals will be to amend first the various trade agreements that are causing job losses. Where corporate tax loopholes exist that promote the export of jobs, they will be closed. When nations fail to maintain a minimum, living wage, trade agreements should be amended to provide a penalty. Some say that NAFTA has led to a 35% reduction in the pay rate in Mexico. If so, NAFTA must be fixed. If free trade is not uplifting societies then it is not fair trade, it is a race to the bottom.