These trade agreements allow the exportation of jobs to third-world countries for cheap labor. For all of the jobs that leave [the U.S.], African Americans get fewer jobs.
The goal of any trade agreement should be to benefit Americans by providing lower costs on a variety of products. Imported goods to America increases the variety of shopping choices for the black community especially if they’re cheaper than domestic-made products, they put pressure on domestic manufacturers to lower their prices. This may in turn force domestic manufacturers to seek better places to conduct their business to maximize profit.
The nonprofit Economic Policy Institute estimates that NAFTA has eliminated over 700,000 U.S. jobs and that trade with China since that country entered the World Trade Organization has resulted in 3.2 million lost jobs.
In the City of Baltimore, it was found that from 1970 to 2010, as the city hemorrhaged industrial jobs, the employment rate among the city’s black men dropped from 72.8 percent to 57.5 percent. Nationwide, only 8.6 percent of African-Americans were employed in manufacturing by 2013, according to U.S. Census data.
So, what are ways that Black America can help itself fight against the job loss from these trade agreements? There are a couple of ways…
We need to develop more economic power in the black community, this simply means we need more black entrepreneurs that are willing to get into the import and export industry.
