International Trade

International trade can be considered an opportunity for workers in many ways, but it can also be a threat. International trade can open up jobs where ever a company moves. When a company moves, the area that they were in suffers a tremendous loss of jobs, causing unemployment to rise drastically. Let's take a look at VF Jeanswear, who is the producer of Lee and Wrangler apparel.

In July of 2003, VF Jeanswear announced that they were planning to layoff over 1800 employees when they closed the plants in North Carolina and Oklahoma (New York Times, 2003). There were 663 workers laid off in Seminole, Oklahoma, and 246 in Ada, Oklahoma (New York Times, 2003). At that time VF Jeanswear had only twelve plants in the United States and 20 outside the United States (New York Times, 2003). Then in September of 2004, VF Jeanswear announced once again that it "would close two plants and reduce the work force at two others as it moves more than 1,000 jobs from the El Paso, Tex., area to Mexico by the end of the year (New York Times, 2004). This time there were 640 workers laid off in the jeans factory and 56 in the jeans washing plant (New York Times, 2004). Also in Fabens, Texas 89 workers lost their job in the "last VF Jeanswear factory that will remain open in the United States" (New York Times, 2004). Obviously this was detrimental to the cities that the company left. There were more jobs that countries such as Mexico had to gain.

I live in one of the towns that were affected, which is Seminole, Oklahoma. Wrangler had two plants in Seminole, a distribution center, and a manufacturing plant. My mother worked at the manufacturing plant, I worked for the distribution center. This town has suffered great loss because the economy and people of the town suffered. Many lost jobs and all hope because for many years Seminole was bought out by Wrangler when any other business tried to come into Seminole that might take their employees. Because the town of Seminole was too ignorant to believe that VF Jeanswear would ever shut down, the townspeople suffered. I know that many of the individuals who were a part of the mass layoff went to school to become reeducated in another field, but even though VF Jeanswear paid for this, they were still unable to find jobs. Our unemployment rate has never been the same.

One of the major challenges for international trading systems is the misleading of economic growth by means of the people. Many things were promised when NAFTA was first implemented, that have not happened. Communication is also another problem, along with national sovereignty, and the opinion of globalization. NAFTA was never a means for quick economic growth, but people misunderstood it to be.

References

New York Times. (2003, July 30). Company, news; vf jeanswear to lay off 1,800 and close plants. Retrieved January 19, 2007, from New York Times Web site: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E1DC173EF933A05754C0A9659C8B63

New York Times. (2004, September 3). Company news; jeans maker to shut 2 texas plants and cut 1,000 jobs. Retrieved January 19, 2007, from New York Times Web site: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9402E0DF1031F930A3575AC0A9629C8B63