When an American worker loses their job due to competition created by international trade, the Trade Adjustment Act provides funding for that worker to be retrained for a new job. A cousin to that program is the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms program.
Instead of retraining workers, the federal program retrains companies, from farms to manufacturers, that are facing revenue losses because of trade, usually in the form of competition from low-cost imports. The TAAF provides a dollar for dollar match up to $75,000 for businesses to bring in outside expertise to help them better compete.
“If a company is facing very strong price competition, they generally find themselves in a situation where something has to change. They have to find a new corner of the market. They have to get better at doing something,” said David Holbert, the CEO of the Northwest Trade Adjustment Assistance Center.
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