Killer Trucks

The Teamsters’ Union, apparently having spent last week binge-watching Killdozer and Steven Spielberg’s truck-menace movie, Duel, want you to be aware of the new threat to America: trucks. That’s right, the Bush administration is going to allow "unsafe Mexican trucks" to enter the country, and the Teamsters think this is bad, very bad.

But what’s the real issue here? Not trucks, but trade. And free, unrestricted trade, despite what union naysayers and John Edwards want you to think, is a good thing.  Here’s congressional testimony from Cato’s Dan Griswold:

American workers are not pitted in zero-sum competition with workers in poor countries. There is no global “race to the bottom” on labor standards. Through specialization, global incomes and working conditions can rise for workers in all countries that participate in the global economy. American workers can compete profitably in world markets because we are so much more productive. Because of our education, infrastructure, efficient domestic markets, the rule of law, political stability, and a generally open economy, American workers compete and prosper in a broad range of sectors. As our country has become more globalized in the past 25 years, American workers and their families have enjoyed significant increases in real incomes, compensation, and wealth.

Nor has trade with developing countries undermined America’s manufacturing base. According to the latest figures from the Federal Reserve Board, the output of America’s factories in 2006 was more than 50 percent higher than in the early 1990s before NAFTA and the World Trade Organization came into being. American factories are producing more aircraft and pharmaceuticals, more sophisticated machinery and semiconductors, more chemicals and even more passenger vehicles andparts than 15 years ago.