Issue Position: International Trade

Issue Position

I have been fighting for a "fair trade" policy since I became a Member of Congress.

I was proud to lead the House efforts to defeat the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and most favored nation trade status for Communist China.

We are now seeing the results of a failed federal trade policy: shuttered factories, depleted tax bases, and families out of work.

Remember when NAFTA promised us millions of good jobs? Instead, we got the giant sucking sound of jobs leaving America.

NAFTA and similar agreements have devastated our great manufacturing sector, which has lost a third of its workers since 1994 as they are forced to compete on an unlevel playing field.

Multinational corporations are taking advantage of low-wage platforms in China, Mexico and other nations. Meanwhile, state-managed capitalist enterprises in nations such as Japan, Germany, and South Korea keep out American-made products.

It's time to wake up, stand up for our country, and renegotiate those trade agreements that move our jobs offshore.

What Unfair Trade Has Done to Our Region

Working together, our businesses and labor organizations built Northern Ohio into an industrial powerhouse - always standing up for America, whether in war or peace.

Springing from the rich soils of the former Great Black Swamp, our farms combined with businesses and industries to form a diversified economy in the crossroads of America. That economy has weathered many economic storms, only to come back with even more vigor. Now, at the dawn of the 21st Century, the economy of Northern Ohio faces even greater challenges.

Unfair trade agreements like NAFTA are draining the economic lifeblood of our region. Unbalanced federal trade deficits have saddled future generations with staggering amounts of debt and drastically reduced their range of opportunities. Unequal funding formulas have denied many Ohio schoolchildren of an adequate education and threatened our economic future.

America's working men and working women and their families deserve a government that takes their side, not the side of big money. They deserve fair trade agreements that produce a level economic playing field, not a race to the bottom. They deserve fiscal responsibility, not budget and trade deficits for as far as the eye can see.

Proposed Korea Free Trade Agreement

The proposed free trade agreement with the Republic of Korea is yet another example of NAFTA-style trade agreements that put the interests of large multinational corporations ahead of working Americans.

The proposed free trade agreement with the Republic of Korea is yet another example of NAFTA-style trade agreements that put the interests of large multinational corporations ahead of working Americans.

President Obama has signaled his interest in fixing the flawed Korea agreement so that it does not harm America's autoworkers and cattle ranchers. Korea has never been willing, however, to open its doors to American products in the auto sector. Our exports to Korea are minuscule; meanwhile, Kia and Hyundai enjoy untrammeled access to the U.S. consumer market, the largest in the world.

Unfortunately, the proposed Korea agreement follows the broken model by granting to foreign investors the same rights as in the NAFTA agreement. It also contains what Global Trade Watch has called "the strongest dose of financial regulation ever contained in a U.S. trade pact."

We must not sit back and allow Korean companies to attack as unfair trade practices those U.S. laws that protect our environment, our health, and our financial system.

The House Trade Working Group

Congresswoman Kaptur belongs to the bipartisan House Trade Working Group, which fights for a fair trade policy for American workers. The group has pushed forward-looking trade policy and has organized efforts against unfair trade deals. It organizes press conferences, introduces legislation, briefings, letters, and other initiatives to fight for fairer trade agreements.

Expanding Trade Adjustment Assistance

Congresswoman Kaptur has been a consistent champion of Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), which provides job training and other assistance to workers who have been laid off due to trade. She is a strong advocate for full funding of all of the TAA programs, including TAA for Workers, TAA for Firms, and the new TAA for Communities program, which will allow areas to receive federal funding to develop a strategy to diversify and strengthen their economy.

Trade and Immigration

America's immigration system is broken and in serious need of comprehensive overhaul. The continental trading relationship between the people of the Americas is also broken. The fact that the U.S. has an estimated 10 million or more undocumented immigrants can be directly attributed to flawed trade agreements, most notably NAFTA and its omission of humane adjustment provisions for Mexico's workers.

Displaced U.S. workers represent the other harmed party. These harsh trade, agricultural, and economic policies largely benefit global corporations while devaluing human life, the worth of work, principles of equality, and just treatment under the rule of law for the people of the Americas.

Millions of uprooted immigrants risk their lives crossing the U.S.-Mexico border region, in search of the American Dream. Millions of U.S. citizens find their standard of living dropping as living wage jobs with benefits are outsourced to Mexico and other nations where half the population exists on $4 per day. Only when these flawed trade deals are renegotiated will the root causes of America's immigration problem be resolved.

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