Trade creates jobs. 

Sometimes trade can hurt: In the last twenty years, the United States has lost about 2 million jobs due to competition from imports. Yet our trade-empowered economy has more than compensated. In the last decade, it has created 35 million jobs.  

Everybody likes exports, and nobody doubts that they can drive employment. Imports can create jobs as well. About half of all imports are used for further production in the United States, by American factory workers. But that’s not all. When a foreign-made item arrives in our ports, it often takes a longshoreman to unload it, a trucker or a rail worker to transport it, a warehouse employee to stock it, and a cashier to sell it.  

Under protectionism, a few of these jobs would continue to exist. Just not as many. Would yours? 

When we trade, we work--and the more we trade, the more work we’ll have to go around.