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OCR Page 1 of 8306/09/99
07:19
202 219 7971
DOL OSEC
002
NAFTA-RELATED ASSISTANCE
Question:
What has the Administration done to help communities and workers adversely affected by NAFTA?
Answer:
The NAFTA-TAA program helps workers who lose their jobs or whose hours of work and wages are
reduced as a result of trade with Canada or Mexico. It provides both early response to the threat of
unemployment and the opportunity to engage in long-term training to acquire skills in new
occupations while receiving income support.
Services include: career counseling and job placement assistance services; up to 104 weeks of
training for employment in another job or career; income support for up to 52 weeks after UI
benefits are exhausted (for a total of 78 weeks) for workers who enroll by the 16th week after
dislocation; and job scarch and relocation allowances.
Over 232,000 workers employed in nearly 2,000 firms have been certified as eligible to apply for
benefits under NAFTA-TAA since 1994. Note that a NAFTA-TAA certification is not a
determination that job losses were the result of the NAFTA agreement, but only that job losses were,
at least in part, as a result of trade with Mexico or Canada.
As with our other dislocated worker programs, about 20 to 30 percent of those who are
eligible actually enroll for services. Some workers are not laid off, many self-adjust, and
others choose not to seek services.
Many workers also are certified under the TAA program. Since TAA rules are somewhat
more generous, many "dually certified" workers choose to enroll under TAA -- making the
NAFTA-TAA numbers appear deceptively low.
Sometimes the impact of trade can be severe, and the needs of communities go beyond what NAFTA
can provide. Where communities bear a disproportionate impact -- like El Paso, the Administration
can reach out with National Reserve Account dollars under Title III of the Job Training Partnership
Act to help the community.
For example, the Department of Labor approved $45 million in NRA funds to El Paso to
supplement NAFTA-TAA funds to provide training and employment transition services to
displaced workers with limited language and vocational skills. $15 million was awarded to
the local workforce board to initiate Education as a Second Language and occupational
training for about 4,000 workers. Early indications are that this extraordinary collaborative
is producing positive results.
The Administration also makes effective use of the NADBank's Community Adjustment Investment
Program (CAIP) to give business loans and community assistance grants to eligible communities
while the program is housed at Treasury, the Department of Labor sits on its board.
The President's recent Executive Order helps border communities most severely hurt by trade. It
creates an interagency task force to bring together Agency resources in a unified approach for
eligible communities. The Department of Labor is a task force member.
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