From USA-ITA OFF THE CUFF for May 17, 2013
From May 6-10, 2013, USA-ITA joined a number of other industry associations for Imports Work for America Week, an initiative by a coalition of organizations representing tens of thousands of businesses employing millions of American workers across the United States who depend on access to imports to compete globally. Through earned media, social media, and outreach to staffers on Capitol Hill, we promoted the benefits of imports primarily to U.S. jobs. More information on the initiative is available here.
On May 10th, the Heritage Foundation hosted a lunch briefing for Capitol Hill staffers to discuss how imports support U.S. jobs. Derek Scissors, Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, reinforced the idea that more imports into the United States equals more jobs in the United States, not fewer jobs in the United States. He also explained how a trade deficit is not necessarily bad for the economy, because imports lead to wealth as you can have access to goods and services that are either not available or not affordable if they were not imported. In short, as imports go up, and the trade deficit goes up, the economy gets stronger.
This equation not only applies to imports of finished products, but also imports of inputs, too. In fact, 80 percent of imports are used to make other products or are otherwise used in the U.S. economy. Yet, even the 20 percent of imports that are finished consumer goods benefit us—imports of clothes and toys from China alone help support over half a million American jobs.
Bryan Riley, the Jay Van Andel Senior Policy Analyst in Trade Policy at the Heritage Foundation, talked to the Hill staffers about how they might use this information when talking to their constituents. Is there a small business in your district—like a T-shirt company?—that supports local jobs while still relying on imports? It’s important to make the connection between how imports, like cheaper fabric, allows that company to sell products cheaper, and thus sell more products and hire more people.
To download the entire Heritage Foundation study on how imports support U.S. jobs, visit http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/09/trade-freedom-how-imports-support-us-jobs.