Does the Post Get Paid to Push Trade Agreements?

One would hope so, since its reporting on the topic is so embarrassing. The paper told readers:

"There have been some compromises on jobs measures this year, as both parties have sought small wins. On Wednesday, Congress approved new trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, lowering barriers to American exports."

While politicians from both parties, including President Obama, have called these trade pacts job bills, it would be very difficult to find any economist anywhere who is not obviously on someone payroll who would claim that these deals would lead to any notable number of jobs ever, and certainly not in the next few years. Most analyses show that these deals will have very little impact on jobs and it is entirely possible that they will end up as net job losers in the short-term as has been the case with past trade deals.

The piece also described the repeal of a 3 percent withholding tax on payments to businesses that contract with state and local governments as a jobs measure. This is nonsense. The withholding an effort to increase tax compliance by small businesses who often cheat on their taxes, just like paycheck withholding is an effort to keep workers from cheating. Ending the withholding is a sop to these businesses for political reasons, no one believes that it will create any jobs.

[In response to popular demand, here is the International Trade Commission (ITC) report on the South Korea deal, by far the biggest of the three. It projects that when fully implemented (@ 10 years), it would increase GDP by around $10 billion or approximately 0.05 percent. The ITC projections for trade agreements have generally proven to be overly optimistic.)

Dean---
written by Brett, October 14, 2011 10:10 AM

You often write that free trade agreements typically put non-educated manufacturing workers wages in competition with cheap labor from countries like China or Mexico, thus lowering their wages and contributing to the inequality we see and the rising difference between what college graduates earn and what high-school only people earn.

But what about free trade agreements with a country like South Korea? The wages in that country are similar to those in America, right? So is it better to do free trade agreements with countries that are closer to America's standard of living rather than a country like Panama or Columbia who likely have much cheaper labor?

you need a new korea?
written by david, October 14, 2011 3:17 PM

I think the point is that white collar don't have to compete as hard as blue collar, in general.

Trade deal "job creation" myth blatantly promoted by corporate media
written by arkansasmediawatch, October 14, 2011 6:52 PM

Same here: Arkansas Democrat Gazette - our monopoly newspaper no less - puts "job creation" in its front page headline.

http://arkansasmediawatch.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/adg-objective-reportin/

Please cite
written by Bill Turner, October 14, 2011 10:16 PM

Dean,

I am quite sympatico with your stated positions. Sometimes, though, it seems you are committing the same sins you accuse others of, mainly because you state things like

Most analyses show that these deals will have very little impact on jobs

. I am confident your assertions are more credible than those we get from WaPo, it still is a hole. One I have discussions with others, I'd like to be able to point to specific literature. Since I am not a trained economist, my research would not likely be that efficient. Please try to embed some cites when you do make such assertions. I would truly appreciate it.

More Formal Study, Evidence on this Please!
written by Robert Oak, October 15, 2011 6:15 PM

Dear Dean Baker:

I'd personally like to see MSM corruption be outted, quantified and exposed. There are certain topics where I see, in masse, "articles" that I know are rewritten corporate lobbyist spin machine garbage.

One is trade, another is the continual claim of "worker shortage" or "talent shortage". Not only to the statistics belie this spin, those who research out the statistics, facts, such as Robert Scott or Lori Wallach on KORUS, get a complete media black out.

When we hear corporate lobbyist bullet points on the local news, I know it must be some sort of PR, "plant".

I'm hoping someone definitively quantifies this "article plant" practice for it's disgusting abuse of media, journalism and beyond your blog here, it doesn't seem to get exposed.

@ Brett
written by millions_knives, October 16, 2011 12:12 AM

I'm not sure that Koreans do earn on average the same as Americans. A quick google search seems to suggest that isn't true. http://www.worldsalaries.org
Does anyone have stronger references on how wages compare.
I imagine they would also need to be a bit more specific to the industries that were targeted in the trade agreements. I.E. The Korean trade agreement is purported to focus on giving American automobile manufacturers greater market penetration in ROK.

Does the Post Get Paid to Push Trade Agreements?

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