[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 838-839]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     FREE TRADE DEALS DISPROPORTIONATELY HURT COMMUNITIES OF COLOR

  (Ms. LEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, when jobs are shipped overseas because of bad 
trade deals, communities of color bear the huge brunt of the loss of 
those jobs. Of the 2.7 million jobs lost to China as a result of past 
trade deals, nearly 1 million of those jobs lost belong to people of 
color--one million jobs.
  Even after they lost their jobs, bad trade deals continued to harm 
them. When they found another job, it was on

[[Page 839]]

average for a nearly 30 percent lower wage. Trade deals like the Trans-
Pacific Partnership, which is being negotiated in secret, wreak havoc 
on communities of color. We cannot allow more bad trade deals to be 
enacted, especially when unemployment rates and poverty rates in these 
communities are much too high already.
  Congress must consider the consequences of these trade deals on 
communities of color and all workers in our country given the terrible 
impacts of past trade deals. We must demand transparency, ensure that 
environmental and labor standards and food safety standards are 
protected, and insist that Congress exercise its constitutional 
responsibility in ensuring fair and free trade. TPP is certainly not 
fair and must be defeated.

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