Economist: NAFTA Benefits Economy Despite Job Losses

It’s perhaps the only thing that businessman Donald Trump and democratic socialist Bernie Sanders agree on: free trade. Both say that if elected president they’ll get out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which they say floods the American market with inexpensive goods, produced with cheap foreign labor, in turn making American-made goods – and jobs – disappear.

Free trade backers, on the other hand, say NAFTA enables American consumers to buy goods at lower prices and moves American workers away from low-paying jobs to better ones. And, that by improving the economies of poorer countries, we're all better off.

Economist Gordon Hanson teaches at University of California at San Diego. His latest research shows that voters in areas hardest hit by job losses are most likely to move politically to the far left or the far right, away from establishment candidates.

Hanson also co-authored a January study detailing how trade with China has affected American jobs. Yet, he continues to support free trade. He joins Here & Now host Robin Young to discuss what is true, and what is not, about free trade.

Guest

• Gordon Hanson, economist and professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego.

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