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A new report from Policy Matters Ohio documents that, of the 199,000 Ohio manufacturing jobs lost between 1999 and 2003, one in six vanished directly as a result of international trade. Although free trade advocates argued that NAFTA and other trade agreements would add jobs to the U.S. economy, 45,734 Ohio jobs lost between 1995 and October 2003 can be traced to increased imports or relocation of production out of the country. The report examines trade adjustment assistance program data, which omits much trade-related job loss because jobs weren't covered or workers weren't aware of the program. Because the program data omits so many trade-related job losses, the report also discusses an Economic Policy Institute economic model that considered exports as well as imports, estimated impacts throughout the economy, and projected what manufacturing employment would have been had the trade deficit remained at its 1994 level, when NAFTA was passed. This model finds that increases in the trade deficit from 1994 to 2000 removed more than 135,000 jobs and job opportunities from Ohio's economy. The Policy Matters report recommends that trade agreements be more carefully constructed to better meet needs of workers and that supports be put in place to assist workers and communities with the transition as jobs leave Ohio. To see the report or some of the many articles written about it, see: http://www.policymattersohio.org/trade.htm.