Tuesday, June 09, 2009

'Buy American' will lose U.S. more jobs

'Buy American' will lose U.S. more jobs
"'Buy American' provisions make sense politically, because they create huge political payoffs for elected officials who protect jobs in domestic industries. But, economically, Buy American rules, like all forms of trade protectionism, make no sense at all, since research shows that for every job protected and saved, about two jobs are lost.
Why? Because Buy American provisions and tariffs protect inefficient domestic producers from more efficient foreign rivals. Take steel manufacturers. American firms that buy domestic steel are forced to charge consumers more. So retail sales decline, and thousands of jobs are then lost in countless industries that use steel as raw material."

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