PPI - Radically Pragmatic
  • Donate
Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Locations
    • Careers
  • People
  • Projects
  • Our Work
  • Events
  • Donate

Our Work

Gerwin for U.S News: Populists Like Trump and Sanders Ignore How Trade Benefits Workers

  • November 8, 2016
  • Ed Gerwin

Jobs have been the focal point of 2016’s populist campaign against trade.

Trade skeptics like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have railed against open trade and deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as schemes to benefit global elites at the cost of millions of jobs for hardworking Americans. They claim that American workers would be better served by upending NAFTA, rejecting the TPP, and—in Trump’s case—slapping import taxes of 35 percent or more on trade from China and Mexico.

But populists’ single-minded focus on trade and “lost” jobs has obscured a larger and often-ignored reality: the fact that trade supports—both directly and indirectly—tens of millions of good jobs for middle class Americans. And protectionist policies would put many of these jobs at risk, while offering only the cruel illusion of support to many workers who need greater help.

Continue reading at U.S. News.

Related Work

Trade Fact  |  July 2, 2025

The U.S. Needs 8,000 Tons of Cobalt a Year, and Produces 300 Tons

  • Ed Gresser
Trade Fact  |  June 25, 2025

80% of American hourly-wage workers are in ‘services’

  • Ed Gresser
Trade Fact  |  June 18, 2025

One U.S. measles death from 2000 to 2024; three so far this year

  • Ed Gresser
Trade Fact  |  June 11, 2025

U.S. earnings from international student tuition above those for gold, silver, platinum, diamonds, and gems

  • Ed Gresser
Trade Fact  |  June 4, 2025

‘Congress shall have the power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts, and Excises’

  • Ed Gresser
Trade Fact  |  May 28, 2025

Denmark is a four-generation ally and a good neighbor

  • Ed Gresser
  • Never miss an update:

  • Subscribe to our newsletter
PPI Logo
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Donate
  • Careers
  • © 2025 Progressive Policy Institute. All Rights Reserved.
  • |
  • Privacy Policy
  • |
  • Privacy Settings