If imports were the cause of our problems, the middle class in the other countries would be much worse off than ours. They are not.
Of course, those countries have more progressive taxes, stronger safety nets and stronger unions (no 'right-to-work' laws in those countries) than we have. That has a lot to do with it.
BILL CLINTON signed NAFTA in 1994.
Manufacturing employment declined by more than 2 million workers (19.5 to 17.4 million) from 1980 to 1995. From 1995 to 2001 it increased then decreased to end up about where it started. It plummeted under Bush II just as it had under Reagan and Bush I. It increased under Clinton and Obama (it's at 12.3 million in 2015). I don't buy the "republicans are just unlucky, rather than stupid or selfish, when it comes to the economy. And Democrats are just "lucky" rather than smart.
BILL CLINTON also extended favored nation status to China in 1994.
Which was necessary to allow China into the WTO. To keep the world's biggest country out of the world's trade organization makes little sense. Even if we had tried to isolate China, their economy would have taken off. And our trade with Russia deteriorated much more than it did with China, in percentage terms, from 1994 to 2012 when Russia joined the WTO, too. Europe is China's biggest trading partner not the US. Just keeping China out of the WTO would not have changed anything.
We joined the WTO in 1995.
In a way, yes. The WTO came into being in 1995, when it evolved from GATT, so no one belonged to the WTO before 1995.
I have my doubts that the TPP is similar at all to the ITO that FDR created (and republicans killed). If it is, I'll give it a second look. If not, the WTO and existing free trade agreements with most of the TPP countries will just stay in effect.
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