A Tale of Two Charts
1/23/15

In his last year of office, President Bill Clinton called on Congress to make normal trade relations with China permanent. So legislation was introduced to the House on May 15, 2000 by Rep. William Reynolds Archer (R-Texas) with three co-sponsors — saying that permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with China was a top priority, and was vital to the U.S. agriculture market (to gain access to a market with one-fifth of the world’s population).

...Since then, China has recently passed the U.S. to be the world's largest economy — partly because, American companies have been offshoring so many jobs to China (and other countries). Not to mention: 1/3 of current American jobs are STILL prone to being offshored/outsourced. That would help to explain the Bureau of Labor and Statistics' new report about why so many American workers now fear losing their jobs.

...China was supposed to help provide America with superior markets in industry, agriculture, and technology. The down side to this was: no markets could provide and receive China’s goods like the United States' markets could. But still, legislation was passed by the House of Representatives on May 24, 2000 giving China "permanent normal trade relations" (PNTR). Then it passed in the Senate on September 19, 2000 and was signed by President Clinton on Oct 10, 2000.

Now fast forward to 2015. From Forbes: America's Trade Deficit - The Job Killer -- "There is another big factor that is not often mentioned and has a huge effect on both the manufacturing sector and jobs. That factor is the growing trade deficit, which is really the ultimate determinant of job creation in the U.S."

Since passing PNTR for China, there have been three attempts to repeal it. One attempt was in 2005 when Rep. (now Senator) Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and sixty one co-sponsors introduced legislation. Rep. Sanders said to the house, “Anyone who takes an objective look at our trade policy with China must conclude that is an absolute failure and needs to be fundamentally overhauled.” Sanders then delved into numbers on the trade deficit and the number of American jobs being lost to our overseas competitors.

A few years later, Representative Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) attended a press conference to announce the introduction of new legislation to repeal PNTR with China. As a cosponsor of the bill, she offered the following statement:

"I would like to thank my colleagues, especially Congressman Sanders and Congressman DeFazio, for leading us in the fight to protect American workers against unfair trade policies. Five years ago, I joined 196 of my colleagues in the House to vote against granting permanent normal trade relations to China. Since then, we have lost more than 2.7 million manufacturing and technology jobs. These jobs have been outsourced by corporations that don’t care about people but only about filling their coffers. Yes, corporate greed is alive and well in this country and it is costing real people real jobs right here at home. PNTR is devastating to America’s middle and working class families – technological, textile, and steel manufacturing jobs are being lost. We need to encourage American companies to create jobs here, not make it easier for them to export work opportunities to other countries. This lopsided free trade policy is one of the greatest “sell-outs” that this country has imposed on American workers. The time is long overdue to repeal PNTR and to take a critical and honest look at all free trade agreements that are being negotiated, as we speak."

That was 5 years after Bernie Sanders' attempt. And Rep. Lee was referencing jobs directly lost to China, but not the loss of additional jobs that were lost via "The Multiplier Effect" when jobs are offshored (especially in manufacturing). As factories get "smarter" and more advanced, the multiplier increases significantly. In some advanced manufacturing sectors, such as electronic computer manufacturing, the multiplier effect can be as high as 16-to-1 (meaning that every manufacturing job could support 15 other jobs).

It's now estimated that the trade deficit with China has cost the U.S. at least 3.2 million jobs — and now, even parts of Obamacare are being outsourced....

http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/tale-two-charts-5664