Review, Retool, Renew: The Case for Modernizing Trade Adjustment Assistance, 21-21-2009

Review, Retool, Renew: The Case for Modernizing Trade Adjustment Assistance

Author: U.S. Chamber of Commerce, January 2009

In this paper the U.S. Chamber of Commerce lends support for a number of reforms to TAA benefits that have been discussed in recent years, including making TAA benefits available to a larger number of displaced workers.  At the same time, it emphasizes that TAA’s benefits should not be conditioned on misleading attempts to tie job losses to trade because less than 3% of layoffs of 50 or more people are attributable to import competition or overseas relocation.  The Chamber suggests as a guideline that business should be involved from the outset to make TAA’s training programs more effective and to ensure that workers’ skills are matched to the needs of industry.