NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT AND TRADE ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE DATABASE & Trade Adjustment Participation Reports Database Aug. 2008 NAFTA and TAA databases include records of petitions by workers, companies and unions for assistance for those who have become unemployed because of an increase in imports or shifts in production to foreign countries. The databases, obtained from the Department of Labor, include all petitions, those accepted and denied. The corresponding TAPR data -- available from NICAR for the first time in 2006 -- contains information about the displaced workers who later sign up for program benefits. Journalists can use this data to help track trends in industry downsizing and the impact of global competition on U.S. workers. The data can be analyzed by geographic region, by time periods or for specific industries. It can also help investigate whether employment assistance has been effective in returning displaced workers to the workforce. The Trade Act programs, Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) and Alternative Trade Adjustment Assistance (ATAA), are intended to help adversely affected workers return to suitable employment as quickly as possible. To help reach this goal, TAA-certified workers may access a menu of services that include income support, relocation allowances, job search allowances, and a health coverage tax credit. TAA participants that require retraining in order to obtain suitable employment may receive occupational training. In addition, the ATAA program for older workers provides an alternative to the benefits offered under the regular TAA program. Participation in ATAA allows older workers, for whom retraining may not be suitable, to accept reemployment at a lower wage and receive a wage subsidy. The TAA.dbf includes field ATAA to indicate if someone qualifies for ATAA. This CD also contains data from the discontinued NAFTA program, a similar assistance program aimed specifically at import or shift of production impacts to/from Mexico or Canada. In contrast, TAA can be for shifts to any country. ******************** 2008 Changes: ******************* Three fields have been added to the table TAA. They are: est_taa, display and recon. Recon is an abbreviation for reconsideration for TAA. Est_taa is the estimated number of ATAA workers. ******************** This CD Contains: ******************* 1) TAA.dbf: Trade Assistance Act program petitions (59,003 records) The 2006 NICAR data release of TAA data contains substantially more archival records from the TAA program. The data now covers 1979 - March 2006. Some of the most recent petitions in this data release have no determination information because the petitions are too new; the status of these cases may be updated in future data releases. * Records with TAA ID's numbered 50,000 or higher have six additional fields of information related to ATAA participation and the countries whose trade/production has impacted the petitioning U.S. workers. This information was not recorded for earlier data. 2) TAPR.dbf: Trade Act Participant Reports.(22,753 records) This database is new to NICAR in 2006. It contains records for each individual worker covered by a TAA petition who later applies for various forms of assistance. It records demographic information, educational background and comparisons of income before and after the program. Generally, a person in the TAPR table can be matched to the corresponding TAA petition using the petition ID number (This matching process is not perfect, however. See important notes on this topic below.) Note that it currently contains data from the quarter ending 12/31/00 through the quarter ending 6/30/2005. 3) NAFTA: (8,563) Petitions for certification in the NAFTA-TAA program, 1994-2003. THERE IS NO DATA IN NAFTA.DBF AFTER FY2003 BECAUSE THE PROGRAM ENDED AT THAT TIME. 4) SIC: A lookup table to join with the SIC codes in data tables. 5) ONETCODE: A lookup table to join with the occupational skill training code in the TAPR table, via the soccode2 or onetcode2. Cautionary notes: It includes both lay titles and "official" titles. More than one lay title, though, can be associated with a given code. Also, it does not include the nine-digit Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) codes or , which are supposed to be phased out. 6) DOTCODE: A lookup table including the Dictionary of Occupational codes and titles. 7) OESCODE: A lookup table including the Occupational Employment Statistics codes and titles. 4) Docs Folder: TAAKEY.doc -- Record layout for TAA.dbf TAA determination codes.txt -- codes used to record decisions on TAA petitions TAPRlayout.pdf -- Layout and descriptions of TAPR data. TAPRreport.pdf -- An agency report highlighting some of the data's trends and shortcomings. TAPR FY06 Revisions for Implementing Common Measures -- A DOL-produced Powerpoint with notes on changes to TAPR reporting. Includes regional and federal contact names for this program. NAFTAKEY.doc -- Record layout for NAFTA.dbf ***************************** Notes on importing .dbf files ***************************** If you are working in Microsoft Access: 1. Copy the tables to your hard drive. 2. Open a blank database in Access, name it and save it. 3. Inside the new database, in the File menu select "Get external data" Then select "Import." 4. An import wizard will ask you to locate the file(s). You will need to change the "file of type" to "Dbase IV". 5. Each table will need to be imported separately. ***************************** NOTES ON THE TAA & TAPR DATA ***************************** Caution is required when attempting to pair NAFTA or TAA petition tables to the program participants in TAPR. According to Erin Fitzgerald, TAA program data analyst in the Labor Dept., TAA and NAFTA petition numbers are not unique; both programs started numbering their petitions from No.1. There�s no clear guidance on how to analyze the data using petition numbers. Fitzgerald says the agency doesn�t use them as a primary key. She said that a rule of thumb for recent data is TAA petition numbers are the 5-digit ones; 4-digit numbers are more likely to be NAFTA. (TAA has more participants and petition numbers started from 1 in 1974. The NAFTA program was discontinued). Fitzgerald added that there�s also a chance of data-entry errors or mistaken use of old petition numbers in a few isolated cases. If you want to find out what petition number is associated with particular applicants, Fitzgerald suggests starting with the TAPRs record, then working back to the petition. For example, if a TAPR record�s part_prog field = �NAFTA� then it should be joined with the NAFTA table, not TAA1 or TAA2. Records that have both NAFTA and TAA will require more careful scrutiny of detail fields to make sure they are paired with the correct A limited number of TAPR records list both NAFTA and TAA in the participating program field? Some applicants joined the programs when it was possible to receive funding from both. Later, a rule required people who qualified for both programs to choose one or the other. Also, some NAFTA petitions have an associated TAA petition number listed in the NAFTA.dbf. When dealing with TAW numbers, remember that a company may have more than one unique TAW number associated with it. Also, a single TAW may be paired with a suffix, indicating that multiple groups of workers are involved in the same petition. On a related note, in tables TAA1 and TAA2, a number may be used more than once in the TAW field. However, each TAW/Suffix combination is unique. For example, in TAA2, TAW �50241� appears 7 times with suffixes A-G, creating 7 records for the National Spinning Co. Each one corresponds to a National Spinning location in a different city/state. A couple of new fields have been added this year- est_taa, display and recon. Est_taa is estimated number of TAA workers, RECON is the status of the reconsideration request. ***************************** NOTES ON THE NAFTA DATA ***************************** -DOL stopped processing applications for NAFTA on Nov. 4, 2002. Those applications that were in process at Nov. 4, 2002 had the right to reapply for the new TAA program. If they did, the associated NAFTA-TAA application was terminated. That is why on the NAFTA.dbf 639 decisions were made on 11/29/2002. -In 1999, NAFTA.dbf does not have any IMPDATE and EXPDATE because according to the Department of Labor the people responsible for entering these dates on NAFTA certifications did not begin to enter them on a regular basis until 2000. *********************************************************************** Background info on the DOL programs, from the agency and compiled by NICAR *********************************************************************** Some other minor differences between NAFTA and the current TAA program include: - the Department had 60 days to determine a "pre-trade reform act of 2002" TAA petition, while it only had 40 days for a NAFTA-TAA petition (after the Reform Act of 2002, all petitions have 40 days); - To be eligible to receive Trade Readjustment Allowances (income support), workers had to enroll in training either within eight weeks of the certification or 16 weeks of the separation under NAFTA-TAA, while there were no such limits under "old" NAFTA-TAA (under the new program all workers must enroll within eight weeks of certification or 16 weeks of separation to be eligible for TRA, unless they obtain a waiver of this requirement); - Under the NAFTA-TAA program, some secondary workers could be certified under the statement of administrative action signed by President Clinton. Under the "old" TAA program, no secondary workers could be certified. Secondary workers are eligible to apply for TAA under the new TAA program. "Affected workers" is an estimate that company officials provide to the Department of Labor at the time the investigation is conducted. It is an estimate of the number of workers that have been/will be laid off within the two-year period of a potential certification. The actual number could be different because impending layoffs may not occur, for example. Also, those that are certified at the group level still need to apply at the state level individually. It is at the state level that the state agency determines that the worker has actually been laid off, and is therefore eligible to receive services. If all the estimated number of workers are actually laid off, then the "affected workers" could be an estimate of the number who might apply for assistance (whether they do or not is their decision). TAA assists only workers of a company that creates a product. For example, workers of call centers that are outsourced to India do not qualify for TAA because those workers did not produce an item. Department of Labor: "The Department of Labor has consistently determined that the performance of services does not constitute production of an article, as required by Section 222 of the Trade Act of 1974, and this determination has been upheld in the U.S. Court of Appeals." However, if a service worker works for a firm that produces an article and they are related to the production of the firm, they qualify. For example, a GM plant in Minnesota petitions for TAA and accountants at GM are included in the petition. As long as the accountants relate to the production in the Minnesota GM plant they can be included in the petition, even if they work in a different state. If the service workers are contracted employees, meaning GM pays a company to provide customer service representatives, they can be included in the petition if they work in the actual GM plant in Minnesota, but are not included in the petition if they work off-site. Companies, workers and unions can file petitions. In the Petners field, some records indicate abbreviations for specific unions, such a "GMP" for Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers International Union. NOTE FROM THE DIVISION OF TRADE ADJUSTMENT OF THE DOL: Petitioners have up to 60 days to appeal a determination to the Court of International Trade (CIT), and from there the CIT may have the Department revisit a determination or make a separate determination. Since court cases take time to adjudicate, CIT decisions may change determinations for cases up to two, maybe three-years-old. Thus the data for FY2002 and FY2003 is subject to change based on possible CIT decisions. However, there usually is no more than 15 or 20 cases that go to CIT per year, so the magnitude of potential change to the data set pretty small. TO LEARN MORE LOG ON TO http://www.doleta.gov/tradeact/ FOR QUESTIONS ABOUT THE DATA AND NAFTA/TAA PROGRAM: Division of Trade Adjustment Assistance Contact: Erin Fitzgerald, Supervisory Program Analyst fitzgerald.erin@dol.gov ***************************** MORE INFO ***************************** Please call the IRE Resource Center at 573-882-3364 if you would like copies. The story and tipsheet databases can be searched at www.ire.org/resourcecenter STORY# 20081 Wall Street Reporter Bill Richards in 1997 explored the NAFTA/TAA Employment assistance program. Richards reports that a number of employers have been certified by the Labor Department as victims of the free trade agreement NAFTA, and have become eligible for certain training and other benefits for laid off employees. But in fact, the story finds, many of the presumed 'victims' say their problems and the layoffs have nothing to do with NAFTA TIPSHEET #1421 "Tracking your Hometown Business Overseas" Tipsheet provides contacts for overseas reporters, includes resources on how to track company operations across border lines, gives examples of helpful databases and describes the importance of trade journals, industry publications and court records. TIPSHEET #704 "Fishing with the net: investigating the Mexican-U.S. border and Latin America with the Internet." This handout includes tips on how to use computers to cover issues affecting the Mexican-U.S. border. Also included is a list of websites which can be used when covering the environment, trade, government and immigration. Some handouts in Spanish and some in English. Audio tape is available for purchase from the IRE Resource Center