買美國貨 僱美國人的弊端

Apart from free trade, there can be few issues on which public opinion and the views of economists differ more than on forcing companies and the public sector to buy locally and hire locally.

除了自由貿易以外，幾乎沒有什麼問題能比強迫企業和公共部門採購國貨、僱用國人更能引起公衆輿論及經濟學家觀點的分歧了。

The last time the US government embarked on a big fiscal stimulus with an investment component, Barack Obama’s 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the decision to include so-called Buy American provisions to direct contracts to US companies was a hard-fought battle. Similarly, US work permits and particularly the H-1B visa for skilled workers have proved to be highly controversial among US workers in the tech sector, where their use is concentrated, and in Congress.

上次美國政府實施包含投資的大規模財政刺激方案是在2009年，巴拉克?奧巴馬(Barack Obama)出臺了《美國復甦與再投資法案》(American Recovery and Reinvestment Act)，當時要納入所謂“買美國貨”(Buy American)的條款、以使合同落入美國企業之手就經過了一場硬仗。同樣，美國工作許可制度、特別是面向高技能人才發放的H-1B簽證，不管在美國科技行業從業者中間（拿這類簽證的人大多從事科技行業）還是在美國國會中都極具爭議。

Predictably, given its appeal to economic nationalists, Donald Trump has waded into this issue by launching a review of buying and hiring American, accompanied by fiery rhetoric about keeping jobs at home. In theory, an overhaul of both policies, particularly the short-term H-1B work visa, could yield some efficiency-enhancing improvements. In practice, given Mr Trump’s record to date, the outcome is likely to be more restrictive laws or little substantial change at all.

可想而知，考慮到這個問題對經濟民族主義者的吸引力，唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)不會放着不管，他指示對有關買美國貨、僱美國人的政策展開評估，同時發表了讓就業留在境內的激烈言論。在理論上，對兩項政策、特別是短期H-1B工作簽證進行審查，可能會取得一些卓有成效的改進。而實際上，考慮到特朗普的過往記錄，評估結果既可能是出臺更具限制性的法規，也可能不會有什麼實質性改變。

Of the two issues, Buy American is the more clear-cut. Such procurement rules have been part of federal law since 1933, but can be applied in more or less restrictive ways. They are constrained by the US’s membership of the government procurement agreement in the World Trade Organization, which has 19 signatories including the EU, Japan and South Korea, though not China. Separately, Canada and Mexico have access via the North American Free Trade Agreement.

在這兩個問題中，購買美國貨的問題更爲明朗。自1933年以來，此類採購規定一直是聯邦法律的一部分，但是在執行上可以或寬或嚴。美國是世貿組織(WTO)《政府採購協議》的簽約國，因此其購買國貨規則要受到制約。該協議有19個成員，包括歐盟、日本和韓國，不過沒有中國。另外，加拿大和墨西哥的產品可以憑藉《北美自由貿易協定》(NAFTA)進入美國市場。

Attempts to restrict procurement to domestic companies tend to backfire. They induce retaliation from trading partners, harming US businesses trying to sell abroad. They raise input costs, ensuring less infrastructure is built and fewer construction workers are hired for each dollar of public spending. And they increase paperwork and delays as companies struggle to cope with onerous reporting requirements.

試圖推行只能採購國內企業產品的做法往往會適得其反。這些做法會引起貿易伙伴的報復，傷害美國出口企業；提高投入成本，相同的公共支出所能建設的基礎設施會更少、所能僱用的建築工人也會更少；此外還會增加文書工作並耽誤時間，因爲企業需要努力應對繁瑣的報告要求。

The H-1B issue is more complex. The visa programme was designed to bring in high-skilled workers, particularly in the tech sector, who would be complementary to US workers. They would also help with start-ups and other fast-growing companies that would in turn increase local hiring. Often it has meant consultancy companies substituting lower-skilled employees with temporary workers and then offshoring production.

H-1B簽證的問題就更爲複雜了。該簽證項目是爲了引入高技能人才、特別是科技業人才，他們可以對美國勞動者起到補充作用。他們還可以幫助初創公司和其他快速增長的企業，反過來會促進本地就業。實際情況往往是諮詢公司會用臨時工代替低技能員工，然後把生產轉到海外。

The high demand for H-1Bs, with the annual 65,000 quota often rapidly filled, has led to their distribution by lottery rather than on merit. Reform to address that issue would be politically astute — and, assuming that some kind of quota is required at all — more likely to increase US productivity.

H-1B簽證每年有6.5萬個配額，往往很快就申請滿了。火爆的需求導致此類簽證是按抽籤方式分配的，而不是按申請人的能力。通過改革解決該問題在政治上是精明之舉——並且假設某種配額是必要的——也更有可能提高美國的生產力。

Handing out the visas on the basis of offered salary would be a simple market-based solution, but it would mean more workers going to established tech companies and fewer going to start-ups. More complex but potentially more productive would be to give visas to companies that allowed workers to apply for permanent residency, showing they were interested in more than churning short-term employees.

以薪資水平爲依據發放簽證，是基於市場的簡單辦法，但這意味着人才會更多地進入成熟的科技公司、而不是初創公司。更復雜、但可能更有效的辦法是把簽證分配給那些允許員工申請永久居留的企業，以表明它們感興趣的不只是招收短期員工。

What emerges from Mr Trump’s review remains to be seen. The unpredictability of his administration could throw up something disastrous, something productive or something ineffectual. But the principle should remain to keep the US economy as open as possible to the inflow of good products and good workers from abroad. Slamming down the drawbridge is only likely to impoverish the residents of the citadel.

特朗普的評估會帶來什麼政策仍然有待觀察。其政府的不可預見性意味着，這些政策可能是災難性的，可能卓有成效，也可能徒勞無益。但應該堅持一個原則，那就是讓美國經濟儘可能地繼續對外國好產品和好人才保持開放態度。猛然關閉吊橋只可能讓城堡裏的居民變得貧窮。