Free+Trade+Assignment

 **Goal** Your task is prepare a position paper on free trade.

You are on the staff of Senator A.M. Biguous who needs help preparing for a town hall meeting.
 * Role**

The target audience will be constituents that show up at a scheduled town hall meeting and members of the media.
 * Audience**

The Senator is facing a tough general election after only narrowing winning her party's primary in the Spring. Her state has been hit hard by the recession and has a 12% unemployment rate, much higher than the national average. Even before the recession, the state was losing manufacturing jobs to imports and outsourcing. Many of the people who will show up are angry and want the United States to protect the jobs that are left by imposing quotas and tariffs on foreign goods that compete with their own industries.However, there are also some entrepreneurs in the state that have been successful in creating new products who want to expand their global reach and have expressed to the Senator the need for open markets. The senator has supports free trade, but does not know what to do or how exactly to articulate her position effectively. You are a bright recent college graduate with a degree in International Economics and the Senator thinks you are just the person to help her convince the voters that her position on free trade is reasonable and in the best interest of the state. You also have to prepare responses for the kinds of questions and concerns that will almost certainly come up from those people who feel they have been hurt by free trade.
 * Situation**

You will create a statement for the Senator to read at the start of the town hall meeting that explains in clear and concise language the benefits of free trade or you could produce a audio file of your work. You should also have the Senator's statement acknowledge the concerns of those who feel they have been hurt by international trade. In the opening, you could offer policy options that the Senator could advocate that might address the state's need to be more competitive globally and short term help for the unemployed.  In the second part of your paper, the Senator will need you to anticipate and offer meaningful responses to at least three questions that the audience is likely to ask at the meeting. In preparing both the Senator's opening remarks and potential responses, you will need to define and explain terms and concepts to the voters that will help them understand the benefits of trade. You should also give examples to illustrate these concepts and historical anecdotes (stories) that will provide evidence of the benefits of free trade. You could even tell the story of someone or some group in the state who has benefited from global trade. ** Standards and Criteria for Success **  If you choose to make an audio statement, it should be at least four to six minutes long. If you submit this as a paper, part one (opening remarks) should be five paragraphs of three to five sentences each (introduction, body, and conclusion). The questions and their responses can be submitted in question-answer format. Please put the question in bold type if you choose to complete the assignment this way. Your project will need to be both informative and persuasive. Be sure to use and cite (either within the text or at the end of the paper) at least two resources you used in your research. If you produce an audio file, please provide your sources in the text box when you attach that file and before submit it to your teacher. Your paper or audio file, should also be free from errors in conventions (grammar, spelling).
 * Product, Performance, and Purpose**