As the Washington Post reports, last Wednesday the Obama campaign made this statement:

"I'm running for President because working families can't afford to wait another four years while the same old Washington players play the same old Washington game, while factories like the York Peppermint Patty plant in Reading [Pa.] move to Mexico in search of cheap labor."

There has indeed been an exodus of candy makers from the U.S. in recent years, but they aren't seeking cheap labor -- they're after cheap sugar.  A study by the U.S. Department of Commerce reports that more than 10,000 U.S. jobs were lost in "sugar containing products (SCPs) industries" (i.e., candy makers and other food and beverage companies) between 1997 and 2002.

Why?  Because sugar is one of the most protected commodities in American agriculture, and a combination of policies, including tight limits on sugar imports, means that U.S. prices for the white stuff are usually twice what they are on the world market.

According to the Commerce Department:

"For each one sugar growing and harvesting job saved through high U.S. sugar prices, nearly three confectionery manufacturing jobs are lost.... For the confectionery industry in particular, evidence suggests that sugar costs are a major factor in relocation decisions because high U.S. sugar prices represent a larger share of total production costs than labor."

The report adds:

"Many U.S. SCP manufacturers have closed or relocated to Canada where sugar prices are less than half of U.S. prices and to Mexico where sugar prices are about two-thirds of U.S. prices."

Trade policy can indeed have an impact on American jobs, but the bottom line is that protectionism imposes steep costs -- including in U.S. jobs.

(See "No Free Dessert" for more examples.)