[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 136 (Wednesday, September 14, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5588-S5592]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            TRADE AGREEMENTS

  Mr. JOHANNS. Madam President, I rise today with my colleagues to talk 
about trade and the importance of trade and specifically to talk about 
three pending trade agreements. And when I say ``pending,'' man alive, 
am I emphasizing ``pending.'' These agreements have been around a very 
long time. And I am referring to Korea, Panama, and Colombia.
  We all know the benefits of trade in the United States. In Nebraska, 
my home State, more than 19,000 jobs and more than $5.5 billion in 
revenue were directly tied to exports last year.
  In trade discussions, we often hear about the need to level the 
playing field. Well, these agreements do exactly that. They eliminate 
tariffs and a whole host of other barriers on most agricultural 
products, including products that are important to my State: beef, 
corn, soybeans, and pork. No doubt about it, they increase the economic 
opportunities for Nebraska farmers and ranchers, for businesses and for 
workers.
  Well, for 3 years, we have heard the President say the right thing. 
In fact, every time he would say something about this, I thought, 
finally, the trade agreements are going to bust loose and we are going 
to have an opportunity to vote on them.
  He said in last year's State of the Union:

       If America sits on the sidelines while other Nations sign 
     trade deals, we will lose the chance to create jobs on our 
     shores.

  Then again in May, the President called for a ``robust, forward-
looking trade agenda that emphasizes exports and domestic job growth.''
  Just last week, the President noted that now is the time. He said, of 
``a series of trade agreements that would make it easier for American 
companies to sell their products in Panama, Colombia and South Korea,'' 
now is the time. If now is the time, why is the administration 
continuing to fail to act? It has been 1,538 days since the Korea 
agreement was signed. It has been 1,540 days since the Panama agreement 
was signed. It has been 1,758 days since we completed negotiations with 
Colombia.
  As I said, I have colleagues with me today who are in a much better 
position than I would be to explain the positive impacts of these trade 
agreements. I am going to ask that Senator Roberts speak first, Senator 
Portman, Senator Hoeven, Senator Blunt, and Senator Isakson. It is my 
hope that if there is time permitting, I will wrap up.
  I ask Senator Roberts, as former chairman of the House Agriculture 
subcommittee and ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee 
today, how important are these agreements to agriculture and job 
creation in the United States?
  Mr. ROBERTS. Madam President, I thank my colleague and dear friend 
from Nebraska for the question.
  In the end, the biggest consequence for inaction that is now facing 
our Nation, our biggest challenge, is jobs. In regards to his question, 
the three pending trade agreements add up to $13 billion in additional 
exports and an estimated 250,000 jobs. From the agricultural 
perspective, the three pending

[[Page S5589]]

trade agreements represent $2.5 billion, if they are ever implemented.
  The estimates are that the three agreements in total are expected to 
increase direct exports by $129.5 million just for Kansas farmers and 
ranchers and an additional 1,150 jobs for our State. For folks on the 
farm, these export markets are absolutely critical. Approximately one-
third of our crop production is exported. For wheat, that number jumps 
to one-half.
  The administration's prolonged delay is causing U.S. businesses and 
producers to simply lose market share. We are losing out. Other 
countries are not waiting. They are enacting trade agreements without 
the United States.
  Let me give a very good example. The Colombia-Canada trade agreement 
went into force on August 15 of this year. Already, Nutresa, the 
largest food processor in Colombia, has announced it will source all of 
its wheat from Canada to take advantage of the lower duties the 
Canadian wheat will receive from the trade agreement. Nutresa's wheat 
demand alone represents 50 percent of all wheat imports to that 
country. Our Kansas Farm Bureau estimates that Kansas farmers stand to 
lose $21 million from lost wheat sales alone and $38 million from all 
agricultural exports just by doing nothing on the trade agreement.
  Soon after the United States negotiated the trade agreement with 
Korea, the European Union followed suit. In July, the Korea-European 
Union trade agreement went into effect. According to Korean customs, 
within the first 29 days of July, I say to my friend, the European 
exports were up 34 percent.
  Get this one: Notably, aerospace equipment increased by a whopping 
1,693 percent. That is astounding. Kansas is a major player in the 
aviation sector, exporting $2.7 billion in transportation equipment 
last year. As the aviation capital of the world, Wichita's aviation 
companies and 17,000 workers have much to lose in trying to compete 
against the European Union.
  It is long overdue time for the President to put some action behind 
his words. Send the three trade agreements to Congress immediately.
  I am going to make a statement that I regret to say. Trade assistance 
notwithstanding, I am very sad to say that I do not believe we are 
going to see any trade agreement this year or the next. I hope my 
prediction is not correct. This is ridiculous.
  Every third foggy night, the President makes a speech and says: We 
need these trade agreements. We are losing market share.
  Well, I don't see the trade agreements. These are not the trade 
agreements. Maybe somebody can find them here on the floor or in the 
House. Maybe they are somewhere. But I think they are in the White 
House, and until we get the politics out of this and the President 
sends the trade agreements here, what on Earth is he doing saying we 
should be passing these trade agreements? We don't have the bill. Send 
us the bill, Mr. President.
  As the administration delays moving forward on these export 
agreements with Korea, Panama, and Colombia, what is happening to 
American exports to these important markets?
  Senator Portman is an expert on this issue. There is not anybody in 
this Senate who is more of an expert on trade. If you apply the 
administration's own metrics, how many jobs will be created--I am not 
talking about lost but will be created by these pending agreements?
  Mr. PORTMAN. I thank my colleague from Kansas, who has just made the 
case eloquently as to why we need to move forward.
  To answer his question, when you apply the metrics the President of 
the United States and his administration have used for these three 
trade agreements alone, they would create 250,000 new jobs. I ask my 
colleagues, with 9 percent unemployment and continued bad economic 
news, can't we use those jobs? By the way, jobs that are related to 
trade tend to be higher paying, tend to have more benefits. This is 
exactly what we need to do in this Senate and in the House and here in 
Washington--put the partisanship aside and move forward on what makes 
sense to create jobs.
  I can't think of anything that would have a more immediate impact on 
those exporters Senator Roberts talked about, who right now are seeing 
their market share eroded because the United States is sitting on its 
hands. In 2006, the Colombia agreement was finalized. It has been 
tinkered with since then, but we are talking 5 years ago. It is 
unbelievable. When we have sat on our hands and not moved forward with 
giving our farmers and our workers and our service providers the chance 
to go into that Colombian market, you are exactly right, they have gone 
ahead and made trade agreements with other folks.
  Colombia is a great example. Back when we negotiated this agreement 
and completed it--and I was the U.S. Trade Representative then, as the 
Senator indicated, and I negotiated with the then-President of 
Colombia, President Uribe, who made lots of concessions, including on 
manufacturing and agricultural services. At that time, we had a 71-
percent market share in terms of exports of agricultural products--
wheat, corn, and soybeans--into Colombia--a 71-percent market share. 
Today, that market share is about 26 percent. Why? Because after we 
completed our agreement with Colombia, they engaged with other 
countries, including the Mercosur countries of Argentina and Brazil, 
and now they are buying their products instead from those countries 
that got their act together and moved forward with trade agreements 
that this President will not get his act together on and send to us.
  As Senator Roberts said, just recently, in August, this summer, they 
completed an agreement with Canada. Guess what the Canadians love to 
export--the same kind of wheat we love to export. So the Senator is 
right, they are going to take the wheat market away from Kansas and 
North Dakota and other States that really need those jobs and need 
those exports.
  We have to move forward. It is really a crime that we have not been 
able to provide our farmers, workers, and service providers these 
opportunities.
  Mr. ROBERTS. Will the Senator yield for one quick question?
  Mr. PORTMAN. Yes. Absolutely.
  Mr. ROBERTS. The Senator has been there and done the negotiating. He 
knows these trade agreements not only apply to our exports but our 
national security. What has this continued delay done--what does it do 
to the credibility of the people who are actually negotiating, our 
trade representatives?
  Mr. PORTMAN. Unfortunately, I think some of these countries--all 
three of which are great allies of the United States: Panama, Colombia, 
and South Korea--feel as though the United States has let them down.
  We are going to move forward here, I believe. I am more optimistic 
than the Senator from Kansas. I believe the President will finally send 
these forward. He has to. The logic is difficult to escape. Why 
wouldn't you? And that is good. We will be able to move forward, I 
hope, with not just opening more markets but helping on our 
relationships with these incredibly important allies. But in the 
meantime, there has been damage done. The Senator is absolutely right. 
I think they believe in some respects that the rug has been pulled out 
from under them. They made huge concessions and commitments to the 
United States and politically took great risks.
  Frankly, in Colombia and Panama, where they moved forward immediately 
to ratify these agreements in their legislature, it wasn't just the 
administration, it was the elected representatives of the people, as we 
are, who took risks to say: Yes, we want to be a partner with the 
United States of America, the greatest economy on the face of the Earth 
and this beacon of hope and opportunity, and here we are in America 
letting them down.
  So in both its commercial impacts on the United States--we have lost 
market share, we have lost jobs because of it, but it also has had an 
impact, as Senator Roberts says, in terms of our standing in the world.
  We have to move forward not just with these three, but the important 
point is that we have to move forward with additional agreements. There 
are over 100 trade agreements being negotiated right now around the 
world, and because the United States does not have a trade promotion 
authority, the ability for the President to negotiate and bring an 
agreement back here for an up-or-down vote, we are not engaged in these 
agreements. We are engaged in

[[Page S5590]]

one, which is a regional one--the transpacific partnership--but none of 
these bilateral ones, which is where you are really going to get these 
trade openings and new exports and, therefore, new jobs.
  This is a bigger issue that must be addressed. This Congress, I hope, 
will address it in the context of the votes we are going to have in 
connection with the trade agreements. We are going to promote getting 
the United States back in the game of expanding our trade and helping 
U.S. jobs.
  By the way, it was mentioned earlier that it is not just that we have 
the opportunity to create over 200,000 jobs. It is also that if we do 
not move forward on these three agreements, the U.S. Chamber of 
Commerce has done some analysis showing we would lose 380,000 jobs.
  This sort of goes both ways. There is a cost to not moving forward, 
and that is also hundreds of thousands of jobs we desperately need in 
States such as Ohio and the States represented by the Senators who are 
here with us on the floor today. The International Trade Commission now 
says these three agreements alone would expand exports annually by $13 
billion--again meaning jobs and opportunity.
  It is time for us to move forward. Senator Roberts has talked about 
what is happening with the European Union, which actually negotiated 
its agreements after we completed ours.
  In the auto sector, by the way, there is an EU-Korea agreement that 
says the 8-percent tariff on imported cars has already started being 
reduced. That has resulted in the companies sending UK cars, including 
Hondas that are being produced in the United Kingdom--they are being 
exported to South Korea. We have a Honda plant in Ohio. I visited it 
recently. There are 4,200 Ohio workers there. We want to export Hondas 
from Ohio to Korea. We can do that with these export agreements.

  It is time for us to move forward. It is not the time for us to play 
politics. We have to move forward because we need these jobs and 
because, again, the United States should be at the forefront of these 
agreements in order to not just protect the market share we have but 
expand it. Ninety-five percent of the consumers live outside of our 
borders, and we need to access those consumers.
  I now ask, if I could, one of my colleagues to talk a little about 
his experience in his State.
  John Hoeven was Governor of North Dakota, so he was like the trade 
representative from North Dakota. He was out there promoting trade as 
Governor, and North Dakota is a State that has a lot of exports, 
including wheat, as we talked about earlier, so they are being hit by 
what Senators Roberts and Johanns talked about in terms of what is 
happening in Colombia today with the Canadian agreement and also the EU 
agreement with Korea.
  I ask Senator Hoeven if he would talk a little about why these 
agreements with Colombia and Panama are so important to his State.
  Mr. HOEVEN. I thank Senator Portman, and I thank Senator Johanns for 
organizing this discussion on a very important issue, a timely issue. 
It is good to be here with Senator Roberts, with Senator Blunt and 
Senator Isakson. I think, coming from our different States, we show how 
important these trade agreements are not only to our individual States 
across the country but how important these trade agreements are to our 
Nation right now.
  When we are talking trade, we are talking jobs. We need to create 
more jobs in this country, and it is the private sector that creates 
jobs. It is business investment, it is companies that create jobs. Our 
job, our task, our role is to create an environment where our companies 
and our entrepreneurs and American ingenuity that built the greatest 
economic engine in the history of the world--this country, this 
economy, this U.S. economy--we have to create that environment so they 
can invest and create those jobs.
  One of the important ways we do that is with good trade agreements. 
Let's make sure our companies can export their great products and 
services all over the world. We have to compete in a global, high-tech 
economy, and these trade agreements let us do it. That is why it is so 
important that we move forward.
  Today, we are on the floor of the Senate saying: Why do we have these 
trade agreements? Thursday night, we heard from the President that we 
need to move forward with these trade agreements. We want to move 
forward with these trade agreements. We are ready to go. We have been 
for some time. In fact, the Senators here on the floor and others have 
been working very hard to do everything we can to make sure we have 
cleared the path so these trade agreements can come to the Senate 
floor.
  It was not too long ago that Senator Johanns, myself, and Senator 
Portman went with Senator Mitch McConnell and Senator Moran over to 
South Korea to meet with President Lee. He wants the agreements. He is 
ready to go. As a matter of fact, he said, please ratify the agreements 
in your country, get them over to me, because I am ready to take that 
to my legislators and get this approved.

  Second, our President said there are some concerns we need to deal 
with as part of these trade agreements. He said we need to address TSA, 
trade assistant adjustment. We said we will work with TSA. We will make 
sure we have enough Senators so it is squared away. We have it covered. 
That has been communicated. So the question is: Why at this point don't 
we have the trade agreements? That is the question I think that has to 
be asked. Where are they? Why aren't they here on the Senate floor so 
we can move forward with them? In our State, as others mentioned in 
their States, they are incredibly important.
  A few big stats to follow on what Senator Portman mentioned a minute 
ago. For every 4-percent increase in trade, we create a million jobs in 
this country. For every 4-percent increase in trade, a million jobs in 
this country are created. How important is that? The United States-
South Korea free trade agreement alone means more than a quarter of a 
million jobs, more than $10 billion in increased U.S. exports to that 
country alone. I cannot think of a time when it is more important to 
create those jobs than right now when we have more than 14 million 
people out of work and many more who are either not working because 
they have not been able to get a job or who are underemployed. 
Unemployment is more than 9 percent.
  This is one of the ways we create that environment that gets our 
people back to work by empowering the private sector to make that 
investment and create those jobs.
  I was just back in North Dakota, and one of the many events I went to 
was an expansion of one of the Caterpillar company's locations in West 
Fargo, ND. They remanufacture a lot of their equipment in West Fargo, 
ND. This equipment goes all over the world. It is part of the huge 
machines that Cat makes. They use these machines for excavating, for 
mining, road building, for all these things all over the world, and 
they are the technology leader in the world in this huge equipment. 
They bought Bucyrus, which is huge in mining, so now they are big in 
the mining business. Getting into places such as Colombia and Panama is 
incredibly important for Caterpillar. It is not just about creating 
jobs in North Dakota, but think of the impact throughout the heartland 
in Indiana or in Illinois or, as Senator Roberts talked about, 
agriculture.
  In North Dakota we have more cattle than people. I think we have more 
than 3 million cattle. Right now to send them to South Korea, we pay 
more than 40 percent tariff. How do we compete with Argentina or 
Australia in that situation? This is an opportunity. This is absolutely 
an opportunity. We need to reach out and grab it with both hands. We 
have the President right now saying, pass those trade agreements. 
Absolutely. Please get them down here to us. We have worked so hard to 
make sure we have cleared all the hurdles, TAA, or whatever else is 
required. Bring those trade agreements to us. We stand ready to pass 
them.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Would the Senator yield for a second? The Senator talked 
about being at home and talking to his constituents about this, and I 
am sure all of us have stories like this, but I will tell you this 
morning we had one of our weekly coffees and the Ohio pork producers 
came. There were about 12 pork producers from around the State of Ohio. 
Do you know what the No. 1 issue was they raised with me? Trade

[[Page S5591]]

and getting these trade agreements done. Why? Because it affects their 
prices directly. They have to have these international sales in order 
to make ends meet. Particularly with the price of feed going up, they 
have to have these foreign markets. It was interesting that of all the 
issues they could have raised with me, the one they are most concerned 
about is to make sure we get these three agreements done, and then move 
forward with the additional agreements.
  It is our job to provide the environment for success. Part of that 
environment is to give our exporters the ability to have a level 
playing field to access these markets. They are the best farmers in the 
world. We have some of the most productive land in the world. They just 
need a fair shake.
  Mr. HOEVEN. It is absolutely true. In handing off the ball in this 
discussion, I want to go back to the trade adjustment assistance, which 
I mentioned earlier. There were a number of things the administration 
wanted to see before bringing these trade agreements forward to us for 
ratification. Senator Blunt and Senator Portman were instrumental--and 
along with these two, Senator Johanns, myself, Senator Isakson, and 
others. We even signed on to a letter not once but I think twice, to 
make sure we got it right. Senator Blunt's leadership in making sure we 
had taken all the necessary steps so the administration was prepared 
and willing to bring these agreements to the Senate floor has been 
covered. I thank the Senator for that leadership. He may want to touch 
on that, but I know how important the trade agreements are to the State 
of Missouri. But I also thank the leadership of Senator Portman, as 
well, in making sure we addressed TAA and all of the issues that needed 
to be addressed as part of moving forward with these trade agreements.
  Mr. BLUNT. I think what Senator Portman and I thought when the 
President said for these three trade agreements to be voted on, we had 
to have trade adjustment assistance. We looked at the negotiated 
package. It was not exactly what any of us who signed the letter would 
have negotiated. We said, look, these are the jobs that are the low-
hanging fruit of job creation if we get these three trade bills. We are 
willing to look at the Baucus camp-negotiated TAA, and support it in a 
way the White House can sign it and send these agreements up.
  Senator Hoeven mentioned, as he and I and all of us were sitting in 
the House Chamber last Thursday night, listening to the President's 
remarks when he said we need to pass these three trade agreements, I 
was almost sure the next sentence would be: And so tomorrow, I am 
sending these trade agreements up. That next sentence did not occur. 
Just like the week in August where the President was on his bus tour 
and every single day on the bus tour he said Congress can do something 
right now that would create more American jobs if they will pass these 
three trade agreements. Every time he said that, even though I was 
hearing it on the TV, I could not help but talk back to the television 
or the radio and say: Well, we cannot pass them unless you send them 
up. You are absolutely right, this is one of the easiest things we 
could do to create jobs, Mr. President, but we have to have the 
agreements from you before we can vote on them. Don't tell the American 
people all we have to do is pass the bill when you know that you have 
to send the bill up before we can pass the bill. We need these three 
agreements. As Senator Portman has pointed out, we need more 
agreements, but that is not happening right now. We do need the 
President to have the authority that I, and I think all of us, would be 
more than willing to give him, but that is not part of this package, 
the trade promotion authority we wish to see extended into the future.
  Right now we have three agreements that have been negotiated for a 
long time, and whether it is the Missouri and North Dakota beef 
industry or the Missouri and Ohio pork industry or the grain industry 
that we all are impacted by, there is a real opportunity here and these 
markets are waiting for us.
  To look at our State, since 2002, exports have increased more than 
three times faster than the State domestic product has grown. So for 
those who say, well, exports cost American jobs or Missouri jobs, they 
clearly provide those jobs. U.S. farm exports reached an all-time high 
in 2010, amounting to more than $115 billion in sales. For every $1 
billion worth of agricultural exports, there are an estimated 8,000 
jobs. So these countries are waiting for agreements that will increase 
trade in soybeans and beef and corn and pork and dairy products and 
processed food; in fact, in processed goods of all kinds. We cannot get 
to those markets until we pass these trade agreements.
  All of us are eager to work with the President to get that done. All 
of us are eager for him to send us those trade agreements. Since these 
agreements were negotiated, others have negotiated agreements and 
launched them--and it may have been mentioned already this morning, but 
if it has not, it is important to understand that on July 1, the 
European Union trade agreement with South Korea went into place and 
they had a 1-month, 38-percent increase year over year the first month 
of that trade agreement.
  The Canada-Colombia agreement went into place on August 15. Having 
been to Colombia and worked on this for some time, there is no question 
there is a preference for our goods, but once they start buying these 
other products, then you have to convince them you need to come back to 
the product you would rather have had to start with if that product had 
had an even shot at the marketplace.
  Panama is negotiating all kinds of work agreements and expansion 
agreements on the canal we are disadvantaged in because we have not 
passed that agreement.
  Let's get these three agreements done. Let's start creating the 
private sector jobs these agreements clearly will lead to. As we have 
talked to the White House and the President about that, my good friend 
from Georgia, Johnny Isakson, has been in the middle of all of those 
discussions. We know what can happen. For it to happen, we have to get 
these agreements sooner rather than later. Let's get them up here. 
Let's get them passed. Let's get them back in the hands of our new 
trading partners and see these jobs increase.
  I am pleased to recognize and encourage the ongoing efforts for this 
effort with my good friend, Mr. Isakson.
  Mr. ISAKSON. I thank Senator Blunt.
  I thank Senator Johanns for organizing this colloquy.
  I represent a State that is home to the second largest port on the 
eastern seaboard in the United States of America. The port is Savannah. 
We are talking about creating jobs in America. The port of Savannah 
directly employs 300,000 people in the southeastern United States. Can 
you think of what an impact this is going to have to increase that 
employment if we get these free trade agreements?

  Let me give you an example that is amazing. South Korea surpassed 
Japan in 2010 as the second largest Northeast Asian destination for 
South Atlantic exports behind only China--second largest in all of Asia 
behind only China--most of that going out of the port of Savannah, most 
of that being agricultural products from your State and from your State 
and from mine.
  Senator Portman talked about pork. In Georgia it is all about 
chickens and cattle. We are No. 1 in poultry, and South Korea is a huge 
importer of our poultry. They would be a lot bigger with a free trade 
agreement.
  Let me give another number that is chilling. South Korea's imports 
from South Korea into the United States went up by 26 percent last 
year. Our exports to them went up by 15 percent. That is an 11-percent 
negative in the trade deficit, which causes us tremendous problems.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator's time has expired.
  Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I ask for unanimous consent for 5 
additional minutes to close.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. ISAKSON. So my point is very simply this: We can help to balance 
our trade deficit. We can help to increase employment in the 
southeastern United States. We can help poultry, we can help pork, and 
we can help beef. It has been 968 days since the President could have 
sent us these free trade agreements, and he has not. My point in this 
debate is very simple. There is

[[Page S5592]]

one person in the United States of America standing between us and more 
job creation, and it is the resident of the White House, President 
Obama.
  I wish to turn it over to the organizer of this event, Senator 
Johanns.
  Mr. JOHANNS. Madam President, I end my comments today by saying to 
all of my fellow Senators, thank you so very much for coming to the 
floor today and making the case. There is an old saying in a profession 
I used to be engaged in: I rest my case. Well, after hearing from these 
fine gentlemen about the importance of these agreements and why we need 
to have the President send them here, I rest my case. It is going to 
improve job creation. It is going to improve our opportunity to export 
our products. It is going to level the playing field. It is going to 
give our producers the opportunity to reclaim market share that has 
been lost while we have been waiting for these agreements to come here.
  The final point I wish to make is this. I come from a State where 
unemployment is right above 4 percent. In this recession in Nebraska, 
unemployment never went over 5 percent. In fact, as I was doing my 
townhall meetings across the State, I had members of my business 
community coming to me and saying: One of the challenges we are facing 
is finding the workers for the jobs we are creating. Therefore, in my 
State, trade adjustment assistance would not be the high priority it is 
in many States. Notwithstanding that fact, when Senator Blunt came to 
me and said, look, the President is insisting on trade adjustment 
assistance as a condition to move these agreements and would I sign on 
to a letter that will back trade adjustment assistance, I said I would. 
Why? Because the trade agreements are important to us.
  It is my hope that after the many speeches we have all given--the 
many speeches I have given on the importance of these agreements not 
only on the Senate floor but across this country--the President is 
listening and will finally send us these agreements so we can work with 
the President. We can join forces on these agreements and do everything 
we can to get the votes in the Senate and in the House to pass them and 
to put them on his desk and create 250,000 new jobs.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Connecticut.

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