Free Trade

The first objection I have to free trade is that we are trading with countries which use slavery and child labor. There are over 45 million slaves in the world still today[1] and China and India are countries with some of the most slaves today[2]. In addition, they both use child labor in production of their goods as well[3] They are countries we trade with substantially: from China we buy more than 30 billion dollars worth of goods every month[4] and 3 billion dollars worth of goods each month from India [5]. 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. The second biggest problem with free trade is that it hurts the jobs in America. 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] While there are some papers claiming there is no effect of free trade, or there is even a positive effect from free trade on our jobs, these all mostly rely on economic theory that has been proven through the above evidence I've listed, to be false. Thus, because free trade with countries that use slave and child labor essentially doesn't do anything to get them to stop using slave and child labor(the countries that use them would be more likely to cut down on those practices if countries stopped trading with them) and that free trade has a negative effect on our jobs at home, I consider free trade to be disadvantageous to America. The only positive outcome from free trade is cheaper products, but if people are out of a job, they can't even afford the cheaper products anyways, as they are earning no money. 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...