OPINION: Rhetoric on Trade, Immigration Trips on Facts

By Steve Massey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Apr. 9–Take an election year, mix in a little economic frustration, add a dash of fear-mongering, and what you get is one of the less appealing aspects of living in a free society: political rhetoric that plays well to constituents but doesn’t jibe with the facts.

Such was on display this past week at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center and on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

In the former case, it was state treasurer and presumptive U.S. Senate candidate Bob Casey addressing the convention of the state AFL-CIO and railing against the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement and other trade pacts on the state.

In the latter case, it was lawmakers moving to adopt immigration reforms amid complaints that illegal immigrants are undermining the economy, driving down wages and devouring public resources with contributing anything.

Unfortunately, as attorney and eventual second U.S. President John Adams said when defending — successfully, by the way — British soldiers accused of murder in the Boston massacre: “Facts are stubborn things.”

And the facts, in both the case of free trade and immigration, suggest Mr. Casey and Capitol Hill lawmakers should do a little more homework.

It is true that Nafta has caused pain in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

One study by the labor-supported Economic Policy Institute, relying in part on trade assistance provided to displaced workers, estimates that 44,000 Pennsylvanians lost jobs to plant relocations and expansions to Mexico and Canada from 1993 through 2004. Nationally, it puts the figure at a million.

But looking at only what has been lost is akin to reading The Bible and stopping with the Old Testament. Turning to the New Testament, we get the rest of the story — and to Christians, the most compelling part of the story.

And the rest of the story on Nafta is indeed compelling.

State exports to Canada, our largest trading partner, and Mexico, our second-largest, have almost doubled since Nafta’s passage in 1993. They’re up 94 percent, to $7.74 billion, to Canada the past dozen years and 91 percent, to $1.42 billion, to Mexico in the same period.

The U.S. Commerce Department has estimated — though critics say it overstates the impact — that every $1 billion in exports creates and supports 20,000 new jobs. By that measure, the state’s growth in exports to Canada and Mexico are responsible for some 90,000 jobs in Pennsylvania, dwarfing what critics contend has been lost.

And these are good-paying jobs — with chemicals, non-electrical machinery, computers and electronics, and primary metals among the top state exports to those two countries.

Never mind what arguably may be even the greater benefit from freer trade: the ability of manufacturers and merchants to shop the world for the best products at the lowest price. That puts billions into shoppers’ pockets every year — or more accurately, keeps billions in them. Indeed, there’s a reason America shops at Wal-Mart, Target and Costco.

In this same vein, discussion about stemming the tide of illegal immigrants and doing something about the estimated 10 million to 12 million or so already here at times has degenerated into complaints that immigrants are taking away jobs, causing already low-paying jobs to pay even less and using our schools, highways and other public resources without paying taxes.

The evidence on all these fronts begs to differ. An article in this spring’s Tax Lawyer by Francine J. Lipman, associate professor of law at the Chapman University School of Law in Orange, Calif., notes that almost every study has found undocumented immigrants contribute far more to the economy and tax coffers than they consume.

They work at both low-wage and high-skilled jobs that the country struggles to fill, either because people don’t want the jobs or companies can’t find enough workers who are sufficiently trained. Moreover, the vast majority of these immigrants pay sales, property, income, Social Security, Medicare and unemployment taxes — even though they don’t directly share in the benefits.

Ms. Lipman notes that undocumented immigrants are barred from receiving most government benefits, even though they are required to pay taxes for them. The Social Security Administration, for example, estimates that three-fourths of illegal aliens have Social Security and Medicare taxes deducted from wages, typically by providing false information to get jobs. These taxes provide some $7 billion a year to Social Security alone.

The point to all this: A nation of immigrants needs to remember where it came from.

Steve Massey can be reached at smassey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1174.

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