Trade and Korea

Floor Speech

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, Politico recently reported that U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman is pressing for another trade bill as soon as possible. This one is called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), to be signed with Asian Pacific countries, about a dozen of them. But whether it is the Obama administration, the Bush I or Bush II administration or the Clinton administration, the executive branch continues to push the same old failed trade model that puts foreign involvement and multinational interests ahead of America's workers and America's businesses. In fact, these deals have cost America millions and millions of jobs as our trade deficit continues to get worse.

This TPP proposal is particularly disturbing as a new trade deal. Because, if you look at the results of the first Obama administration trade deal, the Korean deal, you will see the proof is in the pudding that things didn't get better with our economy, they actually got worse. We were told with the Korean free trade deal that America would create 70,000 jobs here at home.

Guess what?

The fact is, in reality, with the Korean free trade deal, America has lost another 40,000 jobs as a result of that agreement alone. That is about 4,000 jobs lost each month because of the Korean free trade deal.

We were promised with the Korean deal that our economy would grow through increased exports by $10 billion to $11 billion.

Guess what?

In reality, U.S. exports to Korea have actually declined by roughly $800 million since the agreement took effect. Yes, that is a 20 percent decline. That translates into lost jobs and lost income.

America was told that if we signed the Korean trade agreement that, actually, our trade deficit would shrink.

Well, guess what, the month the Korean trade agreement took effect, the U.S. trade deficit with Korea was $564 billion. It has nearly tripled to $1.6 billion, adding to the sea of red trade-deficit ink and more lost jobs.

We were told that America would actually level the playing field in the field of automotive trade if we passed the Korean free trade deal. I didn't vote for it. But guess what? Since the Korean agreement took effect, U.S. exports of motor vehicles to Korea have gone up monthly by, guess what, how much--44 cars--44 cars. That is it. At the same time, guess how many more cars the Koreans are shipping in here per month--20,000. All told, Korea has imported more than 1.5 million motor vehicles to the United States since the agreement took effect.

Meanwhile, America has only exported 34,000 cars--only 34,000. That is a 44 to one advantage on Korea's side. That doesn't sound like an agreement that is working to me. Why model the new TPP on that agreement. The Korean deal isn't working.

The sad thing is the American people have been told the same free-trade agreement lies for the past quarter century. All the lies that are contained in them have resulted in a sea of red ink that is costing us jobs. It is no surprise America has amassed a $17 trillion budget deficit when you have a $9 trillion accumulated trade deficit over the last 25 years. Too much of our economic powerhouse has been traded away.

Mr. Speaker, it is time for Congress to stop these bad trade deals. Focus on creating jobs inside our country. I call on Republican leaders to sideline the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal and bring up my bill H.R. 192, the Balancing Trade Act, as a start.

This legislation would require the administration to outline actions to balance the trade deficit with every single country with which we have a trade deficit--including Korea--country by country. America can then again begin to create jobs in this country at a level that the American people expect--to yield a vibrant economy here at home--and grow our middle class forward, not backward.

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