[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 16361-16362]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            TRADE AND KOREA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for 5 minutes.
  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.

                              {time}  1030

  Well, guess what, the month the Korean trade agreement took effect, 
the U.S. trade deficit with Korea was $564 million. 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

[[Page 16362]]

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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