In this year's election cycle, international trade has emerged as a
.
So journalists with NPR and several public-radio member stations set out this week to examine trade matters as part of our special election-year series:
.
We journalists learned a lot about what Americans are saying about trade. You can join in the learning process and conversation
, where we've pulled together the stories and interviews.
If you don't have time to dive into all of it, here are some of the comments that helped us tell stories about the good and bad impacts of trade.
, Missouri cattle rancher: "This pending TPP trade negotiation, to me, is hugely important for agricultural commodities, but specifically for beef. ... The Asian markets are showing a huge increase in demand for beef."
, truck driver: "Jobs are going to foreign countries, we're shipping more products in from overseas. ... I bet you go to anybody's house and look in their closet and it says: Indonesia, China, Japan, Taiwan. Very few things are made in the USA."
: "Commerce between two countries, throughout history, has always, has almost always, led to improving quality of life on both sides."
, MIT labor economist: "If I lose my job at a furniture factory where I've worked for decades, no amount of cheaper toys and raincoats at Wal-Mart is going to make me whole again."
: "NAFTA did not cause the huge job losses feared by the critics or the large economic gains predicted by supporters. The net overall effect of NAFTA on the U.S. economy appears to have been relatively modest."
, former U.S. trade representative and former Dallas mayor: "No state benefits more from global trade and global commerce than the state of Texas. In Texas, we lead the country in exports and no other states are close 鈥� we export just shy of $300 billion of goods and products and services. ... There are literally thousands of Texans who owe their livelihoods to the production and movement of goods to consumers around the world."
, Nebraska Farmers Union president and opponent of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement: "We have a more positive balance of trade with countries that we do not have a trade agreement with. We'd be better off if we did nothing than we did something that's destructive."
Listen to the audio above for a discussion of trade in the political season with NPR's Michel Martin, NPR's Marilyn Geewax and Colorado Public Radio's Megan Verlee.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDAxNDQ2NDAxMDEyNzU2NzM2ODA3ZGI1ZA001))
