It's about expanding the freedom of Americans to better their lives. Negotiations would be futile. And without trade agreements, the United States will miss a number of wonderful opportunities to eliminate barriers to trade in East Asia and Latin America, and in important sectors such as services and agriculture.
Experience clearly refutes the charge.
During that same time, real GDP expanded by 50 percent and total civilian employment rose by 27.4 million. During the last decade, the number of jobs supported by exports rose four times faster than the overall number of private-industry jobs, to more than 12 million. And export jobs, on average, pay about 14 percent more than jobs in non-export industries. Of course, the dislocation caused by trade does eliminate jobs in less competitive industries, but it also creates at least as many new jobs. The impact of trade is not on the number of jobs but on their quality.