Nafta and its Effect on the American Economy
NAFTA AND ITS EFFECT ON THE AMERICAN ECONOMY -- (House of Representatives - June 24, 2008)
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, last Friday, Senator John McCain, campaigning for President in Canada, of all places, criticized opponents of NAFTA, the godfather of all troubled trade agreements. Incredibly, the Senator said, ``Since NAFTA was concluded, it has contributed to strong job growth and flourishing trade.'' He didn't say where. He then said, ``Since the agreement was signed, the U.S. has added 25 million jobs and Canada more than 4 million.''
Wherever is he getting his data? Most Americans know this so-called free trade agreement is anything but free. We know it has created huge job losses and trade deficits, and we know the harm it has caused in this country and across our continent.
NAFTA has created a gaping net hemorrhage of jobs, lost jobs and wealth for our country. I beg Senator McCain to look at the discipline of the numbers. Look at the trade accounts. They don't lie.
Since NAFTA's passage in 1993, our country has suffered $1 trillion of NAFTA trade loss, amassing a huge deficit with both Mexico and Canada. The figures get worse every single year. NAFTA has not only cost our country over 1 million lost jobs, we would have added even more economic growth and jobs if we had not allowed all these jobs and production lines to be outsourced.
Robert Scott of the Economic Policy Institute points out that ``growing trade deficits with Mexico and Canada have pushed more than 1 million U.S. workers out of higher wage jobs and into lower wage positions in non-trade related industries. Thus, the displacement of 1 million jobs from traded to non-traded goods industries reduced wage payments to U.S. workers by $7.6 billion in 2004 alone.'' Those are staggering figures.
That loss packs a wallop by any measure. I will place in the RECORD a list of just some of the factories that have outsourced production and relocated to Mexico. They go from A to Z: Allied Signal, Amana, Maytag, you can go all the way down the list, Medtronics, Stanley Works, Zenith. I will place the entire list in the RECORD.
Now, it is interesting where Senator McCain was making his speech. He had not just outsourced himself to Canada to make the speech, he spoke before the Economic Club of Canada, a business organization whose membership cheered his remarks. And they should. They alone have made out handsomely under this lopsided trade agreement.
Listen to what the leader of the New Democratic Party in Canada, Parliamentarian Jack Layton, has to say about what is going on in Canada. In a recent letter to Senator Obama, Leader Layton stated clearly: ``Despite the fact that most Canadians are working longer hours, 80 percent of families have lost ground or stagnated in both earnings and after tax returns compared to the previous generation. Real wages have not increased in Canada for more than 30 years. Yet the share of corporate profits in our Canadian economy is at its highest point since 1961.''
Thoughtful leaders in Canada disagree with Senator McCain. They know the income washout that can come from ill-cast trade agreements. He should pay attention to their views.
Before NAFTA, the United States had a trade surplus with Mexico of over $1 billion a year. Jobs were increasing in our country. Today, since NAFTA's passage, the U.S. has racked up an astounding $452.3 billion deficit with Mexico and an even larger $606 billion trade deficit with Canada. At a minimum, our Nation should seek balance and reciprocity, not deficits with these nations.
In Mexico, its civil society has been pleading with us to correct the abuses of NAFTA. Former Mexican Parliamentarian Victor Suarez pleads, ``We want good trade, not free trade.'' He should know well. The Mexican countryside has been devastated as the result of NAFTA as over 2 million poor farm families have been thrown off their land, uprooted in the most cruel of ways. A visible sign of their plight here is their illegal immigration to our Nation out of sheer desperation.
A group of farmers in Mexico calling themselves ``The Countryside Can't Take It Anymore'' literally rode their horses down to the Mexican Parliament to draw attention to the washout of livelihoods of their country men and women.
When NAFTA was first debated, many Members here tried to amend the agreement to avoid these negative consequences on people and communities. Senator McCain didn't lift a finger to help. Senator Obama was not a Senator then.
America should advance trade agreements that produce jobs, balances and surplus, not deficits. Deficits are not good, in your checkbook or in America's accounts. Trade should lift all boats, not create a race to the bottom. Good trade means fair trade for all, not ``gotcha'' trade. Good trade means good jobs, living wages, the right to bargain the worth of your labor by contract, a sustainable environment, and sovereign food rights for all people.
For a rich Nation like America, I think good trade also means a conscience for the poorest people on this continent, not exploitation. NAFTA has produced none of this. It has produced negatives. It is time America voted for positives.
* [Begin Insert]
A Mexican worker observed to me, on one of my several trips there, that their futures were put at even more risk as these global companies work them for pennies an hour, always threatening to move elsewhere. The worker said to me: ``Poor countries are like crabs in a bucket. Every time one country starts to climb up out of the bucket, another one pulls it back down.''
NAFTA has produced none of this. It has produced negatives for the vast majority, and vast wealth for a few.
For Senator McCain and any others who do not know which outsourced firms have contributed to America's growing trade deficits on this continent with accompanying job and benefit losses, let me place them in the RECORD:
* [End Insert]
Companies Relocated to Mexico Since NAFTA
20th Century Plastics; 3 Day Blinds; Aalfs Manufacturing; Acer Peripherals; Advance Transformer; Alcoa Fujikura; Allied Signal; Amana; American Olean Tile; American Standard; Ametek; AMP; Amphenol; Anchor Glass Container; Anvil Knitwear; Autoliv ASP; AZT Sewing; Bali Company, Inc.; Bassett Furniture Industries; Batts; and Bayer Corp./Medsep.
BMW; Borg Warner Automotive; Breed Technologies; Brunswick Bicycles; Burlington Industries; Capital Mercury Apparel; Canon Business Machines; Casio Manufacturing; C-Corps Electronics; Champion Products; Chrysler; Clothes Connection; Commemorative Brands; Cross Creek Apparel; Daewoo; Dayco Products; Dean Foods Vegetable Company; Dyersburg Fabrics; Dixon Ticonderoga; and Eastman.
Eaton Corporation; Kodak/Verbatim; Eberhard-Faber; Eli Lilly Corporation; Emerson Electric; Ericsson; Exide; Federal Mogul; Fisher-Price; Fiskars; Flexel; Ford; Foster Grant; Fruit of the Loom Corporation; General Electric; JVC; General Motors; Gerber Childrenswear; Haggar Clothing; and Hamilton Beach-Proctor-Silex.
Hasbro; Henry I. Seigel; Hershey Chocolate; Hewlett Packard; Hitachi Home Electronics; Honda; Honeywell, Inc.; House of Perfection; Household Perfection; Hughes Aircraft; Hyundai Precision America; IBM; Ithaca Industries; Jeanerette Mills; John Deere; Johnson Controls; Kellogg Company; Kemet Electronics; and KLH Industries.
Kodak Polychrome Graphics; Lee Apparel; Levi Strauss; Lexington Fabrics; Mallinckrodt; Martin Mills; Master Lock; Matsushita; Mattel; Maytag; Maxell Corporation; McCulloch Corp.; Medtronic; Mercedes Benz; Mitsubishi Electronics Corp; Monon Corp.; Motorola; Nissan; and Nokia.
Oneita Industries; Oshkosh B'Gosh; Oxford Industries; Parker Habbifin; Philips; Pioneer Speakers; PL Industries; Plaid Clothing; Ransom Industries; Regency Packing Company; Russell Corporation; Samsonite Corporation; Samsung; Sanyo North America; Sara Lee; Scientific Atlantica; Seton Company; Siemens; Singer Furniture; Smith Corona; and SMTC Manufacturing.
Spangler Candy; Sola optical; Solectron Corporation; Sony Electronics; Square D; Stanley Works; Stony Creek Knitting Mills; Strick Corporation; Stroh Brewery; Sun Apparel; Sunbeam; Texas Instruments; Thomas and Betts; Tiffany; and Toshiba.
Tri-Con Industries; Trinity Industries; TRW, Tultex Corporation; Tyco Electronics; United State Leather; United Technologies; Automotive; Vanity Fair Intimates; VF; VW; Walls Industries; Weiser Lock; Westinghouse; Wilkins Industries; William Carter; Woolrich; Wrangler; Xerox; and Zenith.
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McCain Criticizes Obama's Opposition to NAFTA
(By David Espo)
In a cross-border political attack, John McCain said Friday that Barack Obama's opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement is ``nothing more than retreating behind protectionist walls.''
The Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting added that if he wins the White House, ``have no doubt that America will honor its international commitments and we will expect the same of others.''
McCain did not mention Obama by name as he spoke before the Economic Club of Canada, a business organization whose membership cheered his remarks.
Obama, on the campaign trail in Florida, shot back: ``What's interesting to me is that he chose to talk about trade in Canada instead of in Ohio or Michigan. ..... I think Senator McCain should have shared some of his views there to American voters.''
Obama said he talked to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on June 9 after he secured the Democratic presidential nomination. ``I believe that the U.S. has an enormous interest in maintaining robust trade relationships with Canada and Mexico, and I expect those to continue under an Obama administration,'' he said.
McCain's trip to Canada was unusual if not unprecedented for a presidential candidate, one that his campaign paid for yet aides insisted was not political.
Democrats criticized plans for a scheduled $100-per-person ``finance event,'' and raised questions about U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins' involvement in the trip. McCain's aides said Wilkins had done nothing wrong. They also countered that the money was to pay the cost of the Economic Club luncheon, then canceled the event without explanation.
The free trade agreement is intensely controversial in the United States, supported by most businesses, opposed by many unions, and has already emerged as a flashpoint in the presidential race.
McCain supports it, while Obama and former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton vied for support among blue-collar workers in the Democratic primaries by stressing their desire to force changes.
``Since NAFTA was concluded, it has contributed to strong job growth and flourishing trade. Since the agreement was signed, the United States has added 25 million jobs and Canada more than 4 million,'' McCain said.
In an unmistakable reference to Obama, he added, ``Demanding unilateral changes and threatening to abrogate an agreement that has increased trade and prosperity is nothing more than retreating behind protectionist walls.''
Aides said that was a reference in part to comments the Illinois senator had made in a Feb. 26 debate during the primaries.
``I will make sure that we renegotiate in the same way that Senator Clinton talked about,'' he said at the time. ``..... I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced.''
In his speech, McCain expressed his appreciation for Canada's deployment of 2,500 troops to Afghanistan, and skipped lightly over Iraq, where the government declined to send forces.
``..... This nation has done all that those differences would allow to help the Iraqi people. In characteristic form, Canada has given generous humanitarian aid and development assistance,'' he said.
Later, at a news conference, he said he hoped officials from the two countries could resolve the issue of Omar Khadr, a young Canadian citizen who is imprisoned at Guantanamo as a detainee in the war on terror.
``I have always opposed torture and any interrogation technique that would be constructed in any way as torture,'' McCain added, unprompted.
McCain has made several trips outside the United States since he became a presidential contender, including European and Middle Eastern countries.
He arrived in the Canadian capital aboard his chartered campaign jet and was greeted on the tarmac by Wilkins. The senator said it was not a political journey, yet told reporters he did not feel it was appropriate to have U.S. taxpayers pick up the cost.
McCain was still on Canadian soil when the Democratic National Committee filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the State Department seeking information about possible violations of federal law in connection with the trip. Under the law, federal officials are limited in their ability to undertake political activity.
Aides said in advance McCain would come to Canada to highlight trade, and there has been widespread speculation that he will soon travel to Mexico and perhaps elsewhere to make the same point as he made before his lunchtime audience.
``Last year alone, we exchanged some $560 billion in goods, and Canada is the leading export market for 36 of the 50 United States,'' the Arizona senator said.
``This country stands as America's leading overall export market, and America is Canada's leading agricultural market. With 60 percent of all direct foreign investment in Canada originating in the United States some $289 billion in 2007--our economies draw strength from one another.''
He also said improvements are needed.
``Complying with NAFTA's rules of origin can be cumbersome and costly. Border delays can pose a serious impediment to trade, the equivalent of a tariff,'' he said.
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