In his column, “Exports Create Jobs, Trade Wars Lose Jobs,” The Lee’s Summit Conservative seems to claim that keeping Mexican trucks from having full access to U.S. highways is costing American jobs. Apparently, he believes that Mexico is exporting fewer goods into this country because they cannot ship in their own trucks. How ridiculous can this guy get? Would businesses located in Mexico stop shipping into the U.S. because Mexican trailer trucks are not allowed into the United States? If those trucks were allowed to run on our highways, could we expect to see more illegals entering the U.S. in, or driving, those trucks? Oh, and by the way, what would happen to the American truck drivers who would be added to the unemployment lines in the states? And, how about the trucking companies, their staffs, their suppliers, and service workers, what would happen to them. Haven’t we already traded away far too much of our economy?

Has he ever been to Mexico? I have been. Across the border from El Paso, TX, is the town of Juarez, Mexico. That town has a business district which has many businesses, including American businesses along the main road. They are mostly American owned businesses that export their finished products into the U.S. Those goods are some of the products that the Conservative wrote about. Many of the U.S. exports sold into Mexico are supplies used to make goods that are then sent back into the United States. In short, this country is not so much importing Mexican made goods as we are exporting American jobs. The Southern plantations that employed slave labor may be gone, but American businesses are exploiting workers in Mexico at very low wages. Hallmark, one of the premiere companies in Kansas has moved some jobs Mexico. When my wife and I visited Juarez, Marion laboratories had a warehouse in El Paso and a factory in Mexico. The warehouse was not in use; Marion had to have it there because they had a factory in Juarez. We are not just importing Mexican made products; we are importing cheap Mexican labor and exporting American jobs. Goods made in Mexico by Mexican workers are taking American jobs, possibly more than are lost to illegal aliens who are working here in the United States. American companies in Mexico are exploiting Mexican workers and selling the fruits of their labor back into the U.S. economy for big profits while American unemployment remains stubbornly high even as the economic numbers are showing an economic rebound from the deep Bush recession. Often, Mexican workers are not just exploited financially, but some are sexually exploited in some of those plants south of the Border.

Mexico is not our biggest trading partner and it is not our biggest problem. Time and time again we hear that China has invested a trillion dollars in U.S. Treasury bonds. We buy their goods and they invest their money in U.S. Treasury bonds that will have to be repaid by taxpayers and other investors. Where do you suppose they got that money? Can you find U.S.A. made goods on Wal-Mart shelves? The only winners are those companies that import goods at low foreign made prices and sell them with huge mark ups in this country. How many of those goods are marked “Made in China”? Our fiscal deficits are small in comparison with our trade deficits. According to the Congressional Research Service, our trade deficit was $811.5 Billion dollars just for 2006 alone. Trade deficits have been growing for decades.

We need reciprocal trade agreements that would ease these deficits and create more jobs and exports to foreign countries. Even though we need good trading partners in countries with healthy economies, we cannot continue to give away the store and expect our businesses, our workers and our taxpayers not to suffer. We should be concerned with our own country. The United States must have sound economic policy that provides a sound currency with full employment and alternatives to fossil fuels.

Bob Beigher

Related Posts

• Exports Create Jobs, Trade Wars Lose Jobs