Charlotte Business Journal Op-Ed by Rob Nichols

North Carolina is a case-study in the opportunities and challenges of a 21st century global economy.

Overall, globalization has been a boon for the state, creating jobs and increasing exports by opening new markets for high-tech products and services that take advantage of North Carolina's highly skilled and educated work force.

At the same time, trade has required difficult and painful adjustments for some industries as foreign competition has forced layoffs and plant closings.

In North Carolina, we've seen that trade can be a powerful engine for economic growth.

In 1992, trade supported just over 8% of the jobs in the state. Today, trade supports nearly 18% of all North Carolina jobs. Between 2001 and 2006, the state's annual exports to the world rose 30% to $21 billion. With more than 8,000 N.C. companies exporting goods to 207 countries around the world, the global marketplace has never been more important to the state's economic well-being.

While trade is clearly working for many, it has also brought challenges for some industries and communities. For example, increased foreign competition has forced many of North Carolina's apparel manufacturers to downsize or close altogether.

The tempting response to these difficulties is to retreat into economic isolationism by erecting new barriers to trade. But, as North Carolina's experience demonstrates, that approach would be shortsighted and self-defeating. There is a better way.

We should accept that globalization is an enormous opportunity for North Carolina and for the United States as a whole, while at the same time taking steps to ensure globalization works for all Americans.

Specifically, we should embrace new policies that will help workers, companies and communities retool and reorient to compete successfully in the global economy while continuing to pursue trade agreements that open new overseas markets to North Carolina's products.

The financial-services industry is working to offer new ideas that will help achieve this goal. Recently, the Financial Services Forum, a nonpartisan economic policy association of which I serve as president, commissioned a report exploring how best to respond to the challenges of globalization.

The report, succeeding in the Global Economy: A New Policy Agenda for the American Worker, provides new ideas to help more workers share in the benefits of global trade.

The report finds the aggregate benefits of trade are too great to ignore. Trade contributes an estimated $1 trillion each year to the U.S. economy -- an average of $10,000 for every American household. Continued trade liberalization could add another $500 billion in annual U.S. gains, or $5,000 per household. The implication is clear: We must continue to pursue free trade if we are to keep our economy growing.

But we also must do more to help those disaffected by globalization. The report offers intriguing new proposals that include a revamp of the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance program, tax policies that would encourage partnerships between private companies and community colleges to train workers, and a new insurance facility that would allow communities to insure their tax-base against loss of a major employer because of global competition.

Ideas such as these can play an important role in helping workers and communities make the transitions necessary to thrive in the 21st century global economy while maintaining the great benefits that trade offers.

Rob Nichols is president of the Financial Services Forum, a Washington-based economic policy organization comprising the CEOs of 20 of the largest global financial-services firms.