Free Trade

Remember: since pro posted arguments in round 1, they should waive round 4. We trade with countries that use Slavery, child labor, and/or pay their workers measly wages There are over 45 million slaves in the world still today[2] and China and India are countries with some of the most slaves today[3]. In addition, they both use child labor in production of their goods as well[4] They are countries the US trades with substantially: from China we buy more than 30 billion dollars worth of goods every month[5] and 3 billion dollars worth of goods each month from India [6]. Much of this could have been created from slave labor and child labor, and because we are trading with them, it is essentially permitting them to use slave and child labor. I argue we should not trade with any countries that use abominable work practices such as slave and child labor. In addition, many of the countries we trade with don't even pay their workers enough to survive off of. Free Trade hurts the jobs we have at home. While conservative-leaning economists argue that, in theory, "Imports mean lost jobs only if we pretend we can make here all the things we import, the same way and for the same price," the evidence in reality shows the contrary, and: "Adjustment in local labor markets is remarkably slow, with wages and labor-force participation rates remaining depressed and unemployment rates remaining elevated for at least a full decade after the China trade shock commences. Exposed workers experience greater job churning and reduced lifetime income. At the national level, employment has fallen in U.S. industries more exposed to import competition...but offsetting employment gains in other industries have yet to materialize. "The study shows that the affected industries and regions 'have been hit hard and have not recovered. Workers in these industries and regions don't go on to better jobs, or even similar jobs in different industries. Instead, they shuffle from low-paid job to low-paid job, never recovering the prosperity they had before Chinese competition hit. Many of them end up on welfare. This is very different from earlier decades, when workers who lost their jobs to import competition usually went into higher-productivity industries, to the benefit of almost everyone.'" [6] There is evidence we have lost hundreds of thousands of jobs due to trade with Mexico and Korea as well and the promised jobs that were supposed to be created never happened[7] In another study conducted by Jeffrey D. Sachs and Howard J. Shatz of Harvard University , it was found that trade has contributed to over the past 15 years, a "sharp decline of overall employment in manufacturing; the widening of the income inequality between high-skilled and low-skilled workers; and the especially sharp decline in employment in low skill manufacturing sectors" [8] I believe for these two main reasons, a level of protectionism is necessary for our trade with other nations Sources: [1] https://www.walkfree.org... [2] http://www.usatoday.com... [3] http://www.endslaverynow.org... [4] http://www.census.gov... [5] https://www.census.gov... [6] http://www.forbes.com... [7] http://www.epi.org... [8] https://www.researchgate.net...