The link between NAFTA and lost manufacturing jobs

Report: Ohio lost fourth-most jobs under NAFTA

Excerpt:

U.S.-Mexico trade since the adoption of the North American Free Trade Agreement has displaced 682,900 U.S. jobs, with Ohio losing the fourth most jobs, according to a report from a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

About 34,900 jobs in Ohio were displaced from 1994 to 2010 as a result of trade deficits with Mexico, according to the Economic Policy Institute, which studies the economic conditions of low- and middle-income workers.

California posted the largest loss with about 86,500 displaced jobs.

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The institute said the trade deficit and job displacement occurred as NAFTA made it attractive for foreign investors to pour money into Mexico to gain duty-free access to the U.S. market. Foreign direct investment tripled as a share of Mexico’s gross domestic product and caused companies to outsource jobs and production to Mexico, the report said.

Most of the jobs displaced by trade to Mexico as of 2010 were in manufacturing, with 415,000, or 60.8 percent, of jobs displaced, the report said. Within manufacturing, the hardest hit jobs were in computer and electronic parts, with 150,300 jobs displaced, or 22 percent of the total, and motor vehicles and parts, with 108,000 jobs displaced, or 15.8 percent of the total.

Comment: On the other side of the equation, the cost of goods was reduced.