Today Senator Sherrod Brown and Representative Mike Michaud introduced the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development, and Employment (TRADE) Act. The bill would create new bureaucratic requirements for reports on how trade agreements are affecting the U.S. economy.

But rather than create a new bureaucratic process, can’t Congress simply look at the readily available official data on the huge gains that worldwide trade and trade agreements are bringing American workers and farmers?

Trade sustains millions of American jobs. One in five factory jobs depends on exports, and one in three acres on American farms is planted for hungry consumers overseas. Jobs tied to exports typically pay 15% more than the U.S. average.

Recently, trade has played a critical role in keeping the United States out of recession. Booming exports have generated nearly half of U.S. economic growth over the past year (i.e., exports generated 48% of GDP growth in the year ending in March 2008).

The importance of trade is perhaps clearest among America’s small businesses, which represent 97% of all U.S. exporters. While large companies still account for a majority of American exports, about a third of all U.S. merchandise exports is produced by small or medium-sized companies.

The gains from recent trade agreements are even clearer. Before a vote on any trade agreement, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USTIC) is required by law to provide forecasts about the likely benefits of trade agreements.

For recent trade agreements, the results have been four times greater than forecast.

U.S. workers, farmers, and businesses have benefited as U.S. exports to these four markets grew more than four times as much as the USITC projections. Moreover, these benefits materialized roughly four times as quickly as projected (data and pdf version here):

Consider the following details:

• The U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement was implemented on January 1, 2004, and immediately began to pay dividends for American workers and farmers. While the USITC had forecast total export growth of 18-52% over the first 12 years of the agreement’s implementation, U.S. exports to Chile leapt by 33% in 2004, 43% in 2005, 31% in 2006, and an additional 17% in 2007. All told, U.S.-Chile trade has tripled in just four years!
• Trade with Jordan has risen six-fold since the U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement was signed in 2000, fostering the creation of tens of thousands of jobs in a country that is a close ally of the United States.
• The U.S. trade surplus with Singapore quintupled over the first four years of implementation of the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (2004-2007), reaching $7.9 billion.
• Implemented in January 2005, the free trade agreement with Australia helped boost U.S. exports down under by over 30% in just three years.

The United States doesn’t need the Brown/Michaud bill because the facts are there for all to see - America’s trade agreements are working!

Rather, Congress should move swiftly to approve the pending trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. Given the steep tariffs and other trade barriers these countries have erected against U.S. exports, these agreements are likely to deliver results on the same scale as these recently implemented trade agreements — in other words, tens of billions of dollars in new U.S. exports within just a few short years.