[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4827]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1030
                    KOREA-U.S. FREE TRADE AGREEMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Maine (Mr. Michaud) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MICHAUD. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak in opposition to 
the Korea Free Trade Agreement.
  The Korea FTA is fundamentally flawed. As everyone knows, it is the 
same NAFTA-style agreement that hasn't worked for 17 years. This 
agreement will further undermine U.S. manufacturing and ship more 
American jobs overseas. But there are things the American people don't 
know about this trade deal, things that the administration hopes that 
they will not find out.
  The administration will say that this agreement is key to increasing 
U.S. exports. But what they don't say is that it also increases Korea's 
imports, too, which will expand our trade deficit by hundreds of 
millions of dollars each year and cost us 159,000 American jobs.
  It will also result in more underpriced goods from China being 
transshipped through Korea and being dumped in the United States.
  The administration will say that this trade deal is important for 
U.S. national security. But what they don't say and talk about is the 
potential for it to benefit North Korea through the Kaesong Industrial 
Complex.
  And the administration will say that they fixed the auto provisions 
and opened up Korea's market to all U.S. companies. But what they don't 
mention is the fact that they only fixed the auto provisions on paper, 
not in reality, and this is still a bad deal for the United States 
companies here in the U.S.
  They don't tell the American people that this free trade agreement 
does nothing to stop Korea's currency manipulation. But the Treasury 
Department actually identified Korea as a currency manipulator in their 
report this February.
  I have come to the floor today to make sure the American people are 
aware of how bad this trade deal is for the United States and how good 
this FTA is for China, Kim Jong Il, and South Korea.
  I would urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to oppose this 
flawed NAFTA-style trade deal.

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