More than 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside the United States. Through trade, we’re able to sell American-made goods and services to them. In 2006, the value of U.S. exports was $1.4 trillion. That’s about 11 percent of our total economy.
Trade and prosperity go hand-in-hand. Since the end of the Second World War, the United States has increased its exports and imports dramatically. At the same time, real incomes have more than doubled.
By enlarging economic opportunity and expanding consumer choice, trade puts thousands of dollars into the pockets of ordinary Americans. A family of two parents and three children spends about $9,000 per year on food, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s precisely how much the typical U.S. household saves per year as a result of trade liberalization over the last half-century, says a study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
If $9,000 from your family’s total income this year were to vanish--canceling the benefits of trade liberalization--how would you make it up? Would you stop eating?
When we trade, we do well--and we’ll do even better when we trade more.
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