[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 159 (Wednesday, October 4, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H7836-H7837]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TRADE AND JOBS HEARING IN BROOK PARK, OHIO

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, as the NAFTA negotiations continue, it is 
important for us to listen to our constituents on how we can make NAFTA 
better for them.
  To that end, I convened important stakeholders for a hearing in Ohio 
on how NAFTA has hurt American workers and what we can do to help them.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the testimony of Ms. Lee Geisse 
of the BlueGreen Alliance, Cheryl Johncox of the Sierra Club, and Mark 
Milko of Workers United.

   BlueGreen Alliance Testimony, Lee Geisse, Regional Program Manager

       We know that it is possible to have trade agreements that 
     don't engage the U.S. in a race to the bottom, but instead 
     lift up our own workers and workers throughout the world. We 
     applaud Congresswoman Kaptur's work on this issue and so many 
     others that are vital to the future of Ohio's workers, 
     economy and the environment! Thank you for bringing these 
     folks together and inviting the BlueGreen Alliance to 
     participate!
       In 2006, the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club formed 
     this unique Alliance--founded with the belief that we no 
     longer have to choose between good jobs and a clean 
     environment; we can and must have both. In these 11 years, 
     we've convened workers, environmentalists, and industry 
     leaders to forge partnerships that help us find solutions to 
     address historic problems like climate change in ways that 
     create and secure quality jobs. Together, we are a powerful 
     voice for good jobs, a clean environment, and a fair and 
     thriving economy.
       The North American Free Trade Agreement, also known as 
     NAFTA, has been in effect since 1994. The current 
     Administration has announced plans for its renegotiation, but 
     without much detail. That renegotiation begins this month. 
     For far too many, NAFTA has meant the loss of good, quality 
     paying jobs and increased pollution, as the deal exacerbated 
     offshoring and profiteering off the backs of workers and the 
     environment. It's time for a trade agreement that levels the 
     playing field and makes deep reforms to strengthen workers' 
     rights and environmental standards. American workers should 
     expect agreements that ensure that other countries have to 
     play by the same worker safety and environmental rules that 
     we do. Anything short of [this] would be a failure.
       NAFTA's replacement must support good union jobs, livable 
     wages, healthy communities, clean air and water, and a more 
     stable climate. Through an open, public process, the U.S. can 
     partner with other nations in mutually beneficial trade and 
     climate agreements that are fair, protect workers' rights and 
     jobs, safeguard the environment; ensure the democratic 
     processes of sovereign nations are not overturned by 
     unelected bodies; and raise the bar for consumer and public 
     protections in all nations that are signatories. The 
     BlueGreen Alliance recommends a new approach to trade that 
     lifts up workers and communities. This requires fundamental 
     changes to NAFTA, including:
       1. Creating a transparent and inclusive renegotiation 
     process. NAFTA renegotiations should not be done in secret 
     but should be transparent and allow for public participation. 
     This means inviting and incorporating public input on U.S. 
     proposals for the agreement, and making negotiating texts 
     available for public comment after each negotiating round. 
     Workers, environmentalists, and other key stakeholders should 
     be part of the process to make sure negotiators understand 
     the impact of the deal on jobs and the environment. It is 
     critical that all stakeholders and the general public be 
     involved in a transparent, fair, and participatory 
     negotiating process.
       2. Eliminating corporate courts that incentivize offshoring 
     and undermine environmental protections. NAFTA's Investor-
     State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provision has created private 
     courts in which foreign corporations can demand compensation 
     for environmental protections and other democratically 
     enacted laws before unelected, unaccountable, panels of 
     corporate lawyers. By creating unique privileges for foreign 
     investors, ISDS can incentivize offshoring and threaten the 
     very safeguards we have democratically enacted. NAFTA's broad 
     rights for foreign corporations, including ISDS, must be 
     eliminated--mere tweaks will not be sufficient. NAFTA's 
     replacement must eliminate ISDS so as to safeguard workers 
     and environmental and health protections.
       3. Including strong and binding labor and environmental 
     protections--including wage and climate standards--in the 
     core text of the agreement. NAFTA has enabled corporations to 
     offshore production to take advantage of lower environmental 
     and labor standards abroad. This has significantly impacted 
     workers in both the manufacturing and service sectors. It has 
     spurred the loss of good paying jobs, carbon leakage, and the 
     export of pollution, while undermining domestic labor and 
     environmental protections. To fix this, NAFTA's replacement 
     should establish a binding floor of labor and environmental 
     protections across North America. It should require signatory 
     countries to adopt living wages for workers and to implement 
     policies to fulfill important international labor and 
     environmental agreements, including the Paris Climate 
     Agreement and the International Labor Organization's 
     conventions. These commitments should be included in the core 
     text of the agreement and trade sanctions should be used to 
     penalize violations. NAFTA must make a commitment to 
     prioritize workers and the environment.
       4. Creating a stronger, independent enforcement mechanism. 
     Rules mean nothing if they aren't enforced. In the history of 
     the U.S. trade agreements, labor and environmental provisions 
     have consistently been ignored. Even post-2007 trade 
     agreements with labor and environmental provisions in the 
     core text have failed to produce disputes over widely 
     documented labor and environmental violations. To fix this, 
     the agreement that replaces NAFTA must create a new, 
     independent dispute settlement mechanism for enforcing labor 
     and environmental provisions rather than replicating the 
     failed system of the past. Stronger enforcement is critical 
     to ensure that the agreement is upheld and that it creates a 
     fair playing field among all parties.
       5. Protecting and promoting Buy American and green 
     procurement policies. Currently NAFTA requires that the 
     federal government treat foreign bidders as if they were 
     American bidders when deciding how to spend U.S. taxpayer 
     money. It also includes rules that

[[Page H7837]]

     limit governments' ability to use ``green purchasing'' 
     requirements that ensure government contracts support 
     environmental protection. To protect and grow America's 
     manufacturing and service sector employment, create taxpayer 
     funded jobs in the U.S., and safeguard our air and water, 
     NAFTA's replacement should support domestic job creation and 
     responsible bidding standards.
       6. Strengthening rules of origin. Rules of origin should 
     benefit producers and workers across North America. For 
     example, NAFTA's replacement needs to adopt more robust rules 
     of origin that require automotive manufacturers to make a 
     higher percentage of new vehicles and their parts in the 
     originating country in order to qualify for tariff free 
     trade. The agreement should ensure the signatory countries 
     receive manufacturing, investment, and production benefits of 
     the agreement. Under the current agreement, many countries 
     that are not part of the agreement take advantage of 
     loopholes to gain market access. The rules of origin and 
     regional value content need to be updated so that they can 
     incentivize manufacturing and production domestically.
       We know exactly what causes outsourcing: low wages, 
     exploited workers in unsafe working conditions, and weak, or 
     non-existent, environmental, protections in other countries.
       Americans, Ohioans, and working people everywhere need fair 
     trade deals that put workers and the environment first and 
     don't put corporate interests above our health, our rights, 
     and our safety.
       The promise of NAFTA being a job creator was hollow, and 
     thousands of Ohio workers watched helplessly as this flawed 
     trade agreement led to the outsourcing of middle-class jobs. 
     While Donald Trump has promised to renegotiate NAFTA, the 
     skepticism is that his billionaire, climate-denying cabinet, 
     could actually make it worse!
       All of our partners and allies must commit to helping 
     champions like Congresswoman Kaptur watch closely and ensure 
     that the voices of working people are heard throughout this 
     process to support--not undermine--good jobs, efforts to 
     address climate change, and safe worksites and healthy 
     communities!
                                  ____


         Cheryl Johncox, Organizing Representative, Sierra Club

       Thank you, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, for this very 
     important hearing associated with the North American Free 
     Trade Agreement Renegotiation. My name is Cheryl Johncox and 
     I am a member of the national field team of Sierra Club.
       For more than two decades, the North American Free Trade 
     Agreement (NAFTA) has harmed communities across Canada, 
     Mexico, and the U.S.--particularly people of color and lower 
     income families--by undermining environmental protections, 
     eliminating jobs, increasing air and water pollution, eroding 
     wages, and fueling climate change.
       To transform NAFTA from a polluter-friendly deal into one 
     that supports environmental protection, any renegotiation 
     must include, at a minimum,
       1. Eliminate rules that empower corporations to attack 
     environmental and public health protections in unaccountable 
     tribunals. NAFTA's investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) 
     system has empowered multinational corporations to bypass our 
     courts, go to private tribunals, and demand money from 
     taxpayers for policies that affect corporate bottom lines. 
     Corporations have used NAFTA to challenge bans on toxic 
     chemicals, the decisions of environmental review panels, and 
     protections for our climate. They have extracted more than 
     $370 million from governments in these cases, while pending 
     NAFTA claims total more than $35 billion. The cases are heard 
     not by judges, but by corporate lawyers outside the normal 
     court system. Broad corporate rights, including ISDS, must be 
     eliminated from NAFTA to safeguard our right to 
     democratically determine our own public interest protections.
       2. Add strong, enforceable environmental and labor 
     standards to the core text of agreement. NAFTA's weak and 
     unenforceable environmental and labor side agreements 
     facilitated a race to the bottom in which corporations could 
     offshore jobs to exploit lower environmental and labor 
     standards in another country. Any deal that replaces NAFTA 
     must create a fair playing field by requiring each 
     participating country to adopt, maintain, and implement 
     policies to ensure compliance with domestic environmental 
     laws and important international environmental and labor 
     agreements, including the Paris climate agreement, and 
     treaties protecting Indigenous rights. In addition, each 
     country must make commitments to tackle critical conservation 
     challenges related to illegal timber trade, illegal wildlife 
     trade, and fisheries management. These commitments must be 
     included in the core text of the agreement and made 
     enforceable via an independent dispute settlement process in 
     which trade sanctions are used to correct labor and 
     environmental abuses.
       3. Safeguard energy sector regulation by overhauling 
     overreaching rules. NAFTA's energy chapter, written before 
     awareness of climate change was widespread, must be 
     eliminated.. Other NAFTA rules allow renewable portfolio 
     standards, low-carbon fuel standards, and other climate-
     friendly energy regulations to be challenged for impeding 
     business and hurting corporate bottom lines. Such rules must 
     be narrowed to protect climate policies in each country.
       4. Restrict pollution from cross-border motor carriers. 
     NAFTA encouraged a rise in cross-border motor traffic without 
     doing anything to mitigate the resulting increase in harmful 
     vehicle emissions. Any deal that replaces NAFTA must require 
     cross-border motor carriers to reduce emissions in order for 
     their goods to benefit from reduced tariffs. In addition, all 
     cross-border commercial vehicles must be required to comply 
     with all state and federal standards to limit pollution.
       5. Require green government purchasing instead of 
     restricting it. NAFTA's procurement rules limit governments' 
     ability to use ``green purchasing'' requirements that ensure 
     government contracts support renewable energy, energy 
     efficiency, and sustainable goods. NAFTA's replacement must 
     require signatory governments to include a preference for 
     goods and services with low environmental impacts and fair 
     labor practices in procurement decisions.
       6. Bolster climate protections by penalizing imported goods 
     made with high climate emissions and lax labor standards. 
     NAFTA allows firms to shift production to a country with 
     lower climate standards, which can spur ``carbon leakage'' 
     and job offshoring. To prevent this, and encourage greater 
     climate action from high-emissions trading partners, each 
     country must be required to impose a border tax on imported 
     goods made with significant climate pollution, and unfair 
     labor practices.
       7. Add a broad protection for environmental, labor and 
     other public interest policies. NAFTA's many overreaching 
     rules restrict the policy tools that governments can use to 
     protect the environment and other broadly-shared priorities. 
     NAFTA includes no provision that effectively shields public 
     interest policies from such rules--only a weak ``exception'' 
     that has consistently failed to protect challenged policies. 
     Instead; any deal that replaces NAFTA must include a broad 
     ``carve-out'' that exempts public interest policies from all 
     of the deal's rules.
       Any NAFTA renegotiation must be conducted through an open 
     process that invites the public to help formulate U.S. 
     positions and to comment on negotiated texts after each 
     negotiating round. Bolstered by resurgent support for a new 
     trade model, we commit to push for this environmental 
     overhaul of NAFTA, and against any polluter-friendly deal 
     that masquerades as change.
                                  ____

                                                   Workers United,
                                                  August 11, 2017.
     Re NAFTA field hearing.

     Congresswoman Kaptur,
     Cleveland Office, Cleveland, OH.
       Dear Congresswoman Kaptur: I just wanted to respond in 
     writing on a couple of facts on how NAFTA can affect workers 
     indirectly impacted by NAFTA in manufacturing.
       1. Workers that supply the food service in factories that 
     are moved to Mexico.
       2. Workers that work in the hospitality industry are 
     impacted because of the loss of good paying jobs, those 
     manufacturing workers no longer have the disposable income to 
     go to a racetrack, ball game or other sporting events at all 
     or as often.
       3. The workers that still produce goods like our garment 
     workers are put in a bad bargaining position at contract time 
     because of trade agreements like NAFTA.
       Please keep me in the loop on anything we can do to help in 
     this process to get this trade agreement amended.
           Sincerely,
                                                    Mark A. Milko,
                                     Area Director Workers United.

  Ms. KAPTUR. Lee and Cheryl underlined the adverse environmental 
effects of NAFTA and the need to strengthen environmental standards in 
any renegotiated agreement.
  I was proud to note their statements that Ohio has become number one 
in solar manufacturing. Just as Mark said, it is important that we 
ensure that these valuable manufacturing skills are passed along to our 
youth, and not outsourced.
  I am grateful for their contributions and welcome their continued 
engagement as the negotiations proceed.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank you for allowing me to include their remarks in 
the Record. They are important for all Americans to read, especially 
those negotiating the new NAFTA.

                          ____________________