Thursday, January 22, 2015YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-13 Ohio, says awarding trade promotion authority, commonly known as "fast track," to President Barack Obama increases the risk of this country negotiating international trade agreements that are bad for American workers and middle-class families.
"I know that the president has good intentions," Ryan said Wednesday during a conference call with reporters. "But we believe that as some of these big corporations get into these countries, they’re going to take advantage of the deal to send more of our jobs overseas."
The congressman joined Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga in a conference call to speak against granting Obama fast track authority.
At particular issue is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a complex trade agreement that the United States is negotiating with 11 nations, including its North American partners Canada and Mexico, and countries in the Asia-Pacific region such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Japan.
Fast track allows the executive branch to negotiate trade agreements without advice, comment or amendment from Congress, and prohibits filibusters that could delay, or even block, a congressional vote. Congress approves or rejects the trade agreement as presented on a straight up-or-down vote.
In many of these countries, workers are paid wages well below their counterparts in the United States and often below the U.S. minimum wage, Ryan said. The average worker in Vietnam, he said, earns 56 cents an hour. "How is an American steelworker or an American textile worker going to be able to compete directly with a worker that's making 56 cents per hour?" he asked. Moreover, lower wage rates serve as an incentive for companies to relocate their manufacturing operations overseas.
Ryan pointed to the poor working conditions, absence of safety regulations, currency manipulation and human rights violations that continue to be practiced in some TPP countries.
Absent any language to address these issues, Ryan said it's unlikely he'd vote in favor of such a trade agreement. "That's the difference between a free trade agreement and a fair trade agreement," he said. "We've got to compete globally, but we've got to put our folks on an even playing field. And we haven't been doing that.”
In addition, the congressman said, TPP is similar to the free trade agreement enacted with South Korea two years ago that he said has hurt this country. "This increased our trade deficit with South Korea by 50% and cost 60,000 U.S. jobs," he remarked.
Burga said that earlier trade pacts such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, or Nafta, that were negotiated after Congress in the 1990s accorded the president fast track authority proved disastrous for the American economy and U.S. workers.
"Twenty years later, our import/export ratio has gone from a surplus to a $50 billion deficit" with Mexico, he said. "This is only one example how free trade and fast track isn't working for the American people."
Subsequent trade agreements that used fast track produced the same results, Burga observed, noting the U.S. trade deficit has since tripled. States such as Ohio have lost “hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs. …
"We've gone from one million manufacturing jobs in 1994 to 680,000 manufacturing jobs now for net manufacturing job loss of 320,000," he said.
Burga called on the United States to use this opportunity to develop a new template for international trade. "A gold-standard model that prioritizes raising wages and shared prosperity," he said. "For this to occur, our trade policy and negotiations must be open, transparent and include Congress throughout the process."
Ryan, who has joined a coalition of House Democrats, environmental organizations and labor leaders in opposition to fast track, said he expects TPP and the fast track authority to come before lawmakers as separate measures.
Copyright 2015 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
CLICK HERE to subscribe to our twice-monthly print edition and to our free daily email headlines.