[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11655]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    RENEGOTIATION OF TRADE AGREEMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, last week, the Trump administration released 
its NAFTA renegotiating objectives, which laid out its plan for how to 
fix that bad trade deal for America's workers, but it lacks specifics.
  Yes, America needs a better deal, better jobs, better wages, for a 
better future for our people and the people of our continent. As 
renegotiations begin in August, let us remember the devil is in the 
details. The President's rhetoric alone is not enough. Action is what 
creates jobs.
  Nearly 30 years ago, NAFTA was sold as the epitome of a modern trade 
agreement. Its supporters promised U.S. job growth. They guaranteed 
trade balances and even surpluses. They said there would be increased 
economic trade flexibility for North American industries and new buyers 
of American goods.
  But guess what. Those promises didn't materialize. Instead, U.S. 
workers faced enormous job loss, declining wages, sublevel wage 
competition from desperate millions in Mexico, whose workers have no 
rights.
  The recent tragedy in San Antonio with all of those desperate workers 
in that truck is the tip of an iceberg of labor exploitation on this 
continent that was caused by NAFTA, enhanced by NAFTA. It is so ugly.
  The cold, critical measure of the job-hemorrhaging truth this country 
has passed since NAFTA's passage is our trade balance. That is how many 
more products and services our country exports rather than imports from 
offshore sweatshops. That translates into jobs.
  Since the inception of NAFTA, our trade deficit has ballooned to 
unprecedented levels. This chart basically goes through what has been 
happening recently. Each month and each year, we go deeper and deeper 
into trade deficit, not just with Mexico, but a number of other 
countries. But there has not been a single year of trade balance with 
Mexico since NAFTA's passage, just more job dissolution and job loss.
  Just in May, the United States experienced an overall $46 billion 
trade deficit with the world, of which NAFTA is a part. But since 
NAFTA's passage--get this--our country has accumulated nearly $2 
trillion net negative balance with Mexico and Canada, and that 
translates into lost jobs here at home, and the American people know 
it.
  This import deficit supports millions of jobs abroad, not U.S. 
workers. It means less money left in the wallets of hardworking 
Americans as consumer dollars feed the greed of rapacious corporate 
interests that feed on desperate workers.
  Look at NAFTA's job numbers. Between 1997 and 2010, our country bled 
over 696,000 manufacturing jobs to Mexico alone. You would recognize 
the names of the firms. It is an alphabet soup of companies: 
AlliedSignal, Lucent Technologies, Mr. Coffee, Rockwell Automation, UTC 
Aerospace Systems, Weyerhaeuser, and so many more.

                              {time}  1030

  Unfortunately, the Midwest has suffered the most from this job 
hemorrhage. For Ohio, the trade deficit with Mexico alone resulted in 
tens of thousands of lost jobs. Ohio workers have had their net incomes 
go down by $7,000 per family since NAFTA's passage. Neighboring 
Michigan lost over 300,000 jobs since 2000 alone to Mexico.
  There is little doubt the original NAFTA agreement failed to create a 
modern opportunity for America's workers. It undercut them.
  Today, the Trump administration has a chance to change this. 
President Trump campaigned and promised to build high-quality jobs and 
bring them back to the United States. How can a renegotiated NAFTA do 
this? It must include the most modern and enforceable continental labor 
agreements to yield rising standards of living so wages and job 
training across borders are equalized. If NAFTA were working, more good 
U.S. jobs could be created, outnumbering job losses.
  Mr. Trump promised a good deal for Americans as a candidate. Now he 
has to deliver on that promise. The old expression, ``Don't tell me 
what they say, show me what they do,'' will be the true test of this 
administration's renegotiation of NAFTA.
  The President must take bold action in renegotiating NAFTA, and it 
must resolve in reversing these negative balances and making them 
positive. He must stand up for America's workers, for their jobs, not 
just for global corporate interests, whose shareholders have been 
making a fortune off the backs of desperate labor.
  Making America Great Again was more than a slogan to the people in 
Ohio and the greater Midwest, looking to shake up what was called the 
swamp. We need a better deal for America, better jobs, better wages for 
a better future, and we can start by renegotiating NAFTA.

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