Free Trade has done nothing but GOOD for the US and it's workers.
1) US is the largest manufacturing Country in the World, and that success is 100% dependent on exports. 2) US is #1 service exporter, and always has been, 3) 95% of the World's consumers live outside the US 4) Free trade partners purchased more then 40% of US goods in 2009 5) Since the WTO was created in 1994, US exports have DOUBLED 6) US exports to China have quadrupled in the last 15 years...we are now their 3rd largest importer 7) trade supports 38 MILLION jobs in the US...1 in 5 workers.
http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/931...en-good-for-us
(Show's that we have a trade SURPLUS) with FTA partners)
For people who might think that NAFTA was what started the decline of manufacturing, it was technology...US manufacturing employment peaked in 1979, when there were 19.4 million jobs. That's 15 years before we joined the WTO, and 16 years before NAFTA, and 22 years before China joined the WTO. Also, the US's first trade imbalance year was 1980, 14 years before joining WTO. So any declines that supposedly resulted form NAFTA or the WTO existed far before we entered those agreements.
Finally, dispels the myths of FTA...
http://www.freeenterprise.com/2011/0...squs_widgets=1