Claiming an election-year mandate from the presumptive Democratic
presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, House and Senate
Democrats Wednesday introduced labor-backed legislation to effectively call
a time-out on free-trade agreements.
"It's pretty clear from the 2006 elections and what happened all over this
country, and what's happened already in the 2008 primaries ... that the
public has already moved way ahead of this city" in opposition to trade
agreements, said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.
The bill would require GAO to review existing trade deals by June 10,
2010, and an analysis of how the deals stack up against labor,
environmental and safety standards enumerated in the bill.
If gaps are found by GAO, the president would be required to submit
renegotiation plans for current trade pacts before negotiating new ones and
congressional consideration of pending trade pacts. Committees of
jurisdiction would then review the renegotiation plans.
Brown acknowledged the bill was unlikely to become law this year. He said
he has already been in touch with the Obama campaign about it and that they
share similar principles on trade policy.
"We want trade, and plenty of it. But we want it under a different set of
rules," said Brown, who was among a number of Democrats elected to the
Senate in 2006.
During the Democratic primary campaign, Obama has criticized U.S. trade
policy and called for a possible renegotiation of the North American Free
Trade Agreement.
When asked about what would happen if Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., becomes
president, Brown replied: "It makes things harder."
Brown and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and House Democratic Reps. Michael
Michaud of Maine and Linda Sanchez of California, who introduced the House
version, spoke in front of a packed room.
In attendance was an unusually unified coalition of labor activists,
representing steelworkers, Teamsters, hotel and service-industry and
communications workers, among others. Trade activists from Public Citizen
and the National Farmers Union were also present.
"Today marks the beginning of a new way forward of looking at trade
issues," said Michaud. He noted a recent plant closing in his district,
with its workers now applying for Trade Adjustment Assistance. "They don't
want trade assistance; they want their jobs."
Christopher Wenk, senior director for international policy at the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, said the list of sponsors represents "a very extreme
corner in the trade camp." He said while it was unlikely to become law, it
did represent a level of unrest that does not bode well for the free-trade
agenda.
"The bottom line is we need more of these free-trade agreements and
measures like this just kind of slow things down," Wenk said. "This is
their legislation for a strategic pause, a time-out that we've heard so
much about for the last 16 months ... it is the wrong thing to be doing
right now."
The Chamber and other business groups argue that exports are the sole
bright spot in the economy right now. They cite models like the U.S.-Chile
Free Trade Agreement implemented in 2004, where U.S. exports have risen 206
percent since that time.
But Dorgan said before NAFTA, the United States had a $1.5 billion trade
surplus with Mexico. Now, it is a $74 billion deficit, and the same
problems are evident with recently negotiated deals like a pending
agreement with South Korea, he said.
"Ninety-eight percent of the cars they drive are made in their country,
that's the way they want it. What does our country do as a result of that?
We say we're going to eliminate the very minimum tariff we have now of 3
percent for Korean cars that come into our country," Dorgan said.
The Korea deal is languishing because of the auto issue as well as a
stalemate over beef exports. Likewise, the U.S.-Colombia trade pact is
stalled over levels of violence against labor officials.
Michaud said Obama has assured him and other House members he would not
give Colombia or other deals the green light should he be elected.
"[Obama] made it very clear that if he's elected president, he will want
to establish his own trade policy," Michaud said. "I feel very comfortable
with Sen. Obama's position on trade; he understands the devastation that
trade has caused to the American people and how flawed these trade deals
are."
Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, said
examples like General Motors' announcement it would close its plant in
Janesville, Wis., by 2010 should serve as a wake-up call to free trade
advocates.
"It's about time this isn't left up to individual companies. It's not
about them. It's about us," he said.
The Janesville plant is represented by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who said a
number of lifelong friends will lose their jobs if the plant closes. He
called the GM announcement "gut-wrenching" but stressed it has nothing to
do with trade policies but rather the Democrats' flawed strategy on energy.
"If you're trying to spin something like this as anti-trade, just read [GM
CEO] Rick Wagoner's release. People stopped buying [sport-utility vehicles]
this year because of $4 gasoline. If we would have been drilling for oil in
our own country instead of being 60 percent dependent on other countries'
oil, we probably wouldn't be in this position," said Ryan, a staunch
free-trader. "People don't want to buy a car that costs $100 to fill up."CONGRESS DAILY
