TAKING THE PULSE ON LOCAL ECONOMY: ARE AMERICAN JOBS DISAPPEARING?

Some argue that unemployment rate is higher that what the US Department of Labor reported. 600,000 jobs were lost between January and June of this year, an average of 80,000 jobs at month while 100,000 jobs should be created every month to keep the economy flowing at a reasonable growing pace. With the collapse of giant banks, unemployment rate increased by 1.7% to 7.1%. There is still an average of 300,000 people who are unemployed but not reported that have decided not look for a job or start their own business.

Often I see people afraid of loosing their ability to provide for their families and pay the bills, others are simple angry they lost their income already. In this presidential elections, we have more than the Wall Street Crisis to think about before we vote. Neither of the presidential candidates are offering a plan we can buy in. They need money to implement their simplest plan and we are already broke trying to bail out those who create the turmoil we are living.

All I hear everywhere I go is about Wall Street and Main Street, but I want to tell you about My Street. Nobody seems to care enough about Free Trade Agreements and how well US Exports are doing to become nowadays the most profitable source of capital, and creator of jobs for the country.

Contrary to what some people have led us to believe, I like to discus some important questions that are constantly in American Minds these days.

What do you tell American workers who are worried about losing their jobs to foreign competitors?

The simple truth is the United States is effectively a duty-free market. The average tariff on products entering the U.S. is less than 3 percent. This is peanuts to pay to participate in the world's most open and lucrative market. Contrary to what some may lead us to believe, the United States has very few protective tariffs on manufactured goods. If we did they would be squarely against World Trade Organization rules.

If we were to turn the clock back to 1994, before NAFTA was implemented, the average cost of our imports from Mexico would increase by a mere 2 percent, whereas American products exported to Mexico would increase by more than 30 percent. This would make absolutely no difference in what we presently import, but it would have a dramatic impact on our exports. Mexico would simply source those products it currently imports from the United States from others, such as the European Union, where Mexico has in place a free trade agreement. As a result, thousands of American well-paying jobs created by our exports would be lost and in return we would not create a single job. We have already lost the jobs we are going to lose. It is now time to bring them back through increased exports that only free trade agreements can achieve.

The big winner in all agreements of this kind is American exporters, who will return the favor by hiring more American workers. Since NAFTA was implemented, the U.S. added 30 million new jobs. The problem is not NAFTA; it is that we do not have free-trade agreements with China, Japan, India, and others that make up most of our suffocating trade deficit.

How does the U.S. economy gain when American businesses succeed overseas? Aren’t most of the benefits shared between the company and its foreign host?

The U.S. economy gains when American exporters succeed overseas. It is not that American exporters are uncompetitive; it is the world trading system is corrupt and skewed against them. Our exports dollar-for-dollar employ five times more people than our imports and pay 17 percent more wages. Creating an environment where American exporters are allowed to compete on a level playing field that includes not only the elimination of tariffs but agreements that instill labor rights, due process, environmental protections, intellectual property protections, product standards and approvals, and corruption eradication will result in booming American exports. We have never known a world where American exporters were given equal access on a level playing. I fervently believe if such a world did exist American exporters would put millions of our citizens to work and our trade deficit would soon be history.

What do this means for local business?

Florida’s technology exports alone grew by almost $1 billion last year, according to the Trade in the Cyberstates 2008 report, released Tuesday by AeA, a national technology trade association.

Florida was the third-largest tech exporter in the nation, with a $13.4 billion share of the U.S.’s $214 billion total.

Florida trailed only California, which led the country with $48.2 billion, and Texas, the nation’s second leading high-tech exporter, with $35.9 million. New York ($8.9 billion) and Massachusetts ($8.7 billion) rounded out the top five.

"When many people think of Florida exports, they probably think only of citrus fruits,” said Maryann Fiala, executive director of AeA’s Florida Council. “But, nearly a third of all exports from the Sunshine State are high-tech products. State public policy officials need to see trade as a great job creator for Florida. High-tech exports support nearly 70,000 jobs in the state.”

While Florida’s tech exports rose, they declined by 3 percent domestically.

The largest single tech sector was computers and peripherals, which accounted for $5.1 billion of exports.

The overviews also provided the top five leading high-tech export destinations for individual states.

For example, Massachusetts’ leading export destination was Japan, followed by Germany and Canada. In contrast, Florida’s leading high-tech export destinations were Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico.

High-tech exports supported hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs. In Florida, nearly 70,000 jobs were supported by tech exports. Other leading states included Texas (183,900 jobs), California (183,000 jobs), Arizona (36,400 jobs) and Oregon (33,900 jobs).

What does high-tech trade mean for Florida?

· $13.4 billion in high-tech exports (ranked third in U.S.)

· Up $989 million in tech exports between 2006 and 2007

· 30 percent of exports from Florida are tech exports (ranked 12th)

· 69,900 jobs in Florida are supported by tech exports



Florida’s leading tech export destinations:

· Brazil ($2 billion)

· Venezuela ($1.3 billion)

· Mexico ($1 billion)



Florida’s leading tech export sectors:

· Computers and peripheral equipment ($5.1 billion, ranked third in U.S.)

· Communications equipment ($3.3 billion, ranked third)

· Photonics ($529 million, ranked second)

Source: Trade in the Cyberstates 2008