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Friday 6 November 2009

Most are familiar with trade and globalization, if at all, through the prism of heavy manufacturing in the “old economy.” We know, for instance, how NAFTA-style pacts helped destroy our factory job base. The economics were unabashed and straightforward: By eliminating the tariffs we charged for goods made in countries with negligible wage and human rights laws, Washington removed disincentives for mass offshoring. With “free trade,” our government effectively encouraged corporations to transfer production facilities abroad so as to cut costs via the cheap labor, slave working conditions and rampant union busting that flourishes in the developing world. No surprise—two decades into this allegedly glorious “free trade” era, an ever-bigger swath of Flyover America looks just as flicks like “Roger and Me” predicted: rusted, abandoned, boarded up, and/or otherwise resembling a nuclear test site. Even less shocking, that apocalyptic reality has been largely ignored by a political and media establishment that believes economic emergencies are only those that threaten Wall Street bankers. Indeed, if the Beltway chattering class has paid attention to trade reform at all, it has portrayed the cause as a boring “special interest” crusade of supposedly selfish unionists and crazed anarchists. David Sirota

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