Trade adjustment assistance
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Trade adjustment assistance is monetary compensation or training programs paid for by governments to compensate for loss of jobs due to Free Trade.
In the early 1960's the US government began providing trade adjustment assistance for factory workers who lost jobs due increased imports. However, the program was rarely used until 1974, when it was expanded as part of the Trade Act of 1974. In 1981, the program was sharply curtailed by the Congress at the request of the Reagan Administration. In 2002, the program was again expanded and combined with the trade adjustment program provided under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The program is administered by the Department of Labor (DOL). In order to qualify for trade adjustment assistance, a group of workers must show that they lost their jobs due to increased imports of the type of articles they produced, or that their employer has moved production to another country. Under the current law, workers in most service jobs (call center operators, for example) are not eligible for trade adjustment assistance. In 2004, a group of computer experts displaced by overseas labor tried to apply for trade adjustment assistance but were rejected because software was not considered an "article" by the DOL. After a series of scathing decisions by the U.S. Court of International Trade criticizing the DOL's approach, the DOL revised its policies in April 2006 to extend trade adjustment assistance to more workers producing digital products such as software code.
