WASHINGTON - Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) and Trade Subcommittee Ranking Member Jim McDermott (D-WA) issued the following statements after the White House submitted the FTAs with South Korea, Panama and Colombia:
Levin: “The Obama Administration is submitting to Congress today three Free Trade Agreements that are very different than those negotiated by the Bush Administration. While Republicans were willing to support flawed trade agreements, Democrats have used the intervening period to attempt to fix these agreements so that they work for U.S. businesses and workers and spread the benefits of trade more broadly.
“Democrats have pressed to fix the Korea and Panama free trade agreements, both of which I now support. The agreement opens South Korea’s market to U.S. automotive products -- the source of three-quarters of our trade deficit with Korea -- and sets an important precedent for ensuring trade agreements replace one-way trade with two-way trade for American products. Panama has brought its labor laws into compliance and has addressed our tax haven concerns.
“The Bush administration negotiated an FTA with Colombia that failed to address serious concerns about workers rights, violence and impunity. The Obama Administration undertook to negotiate a Labor Action Plan with the new Colombian Government. Given the lack of full implementation of the Action plan to date, and the glaring lack of a provision explicitly linking implementation of the FTA to Colombia addressing anti-union violence, impunity and fundamentally deficient labor laws under the Action Plan, the legislation is fundamentally flawed and I oppose it.
“Finally, the Rules Committee will report out a rule today regarding House consideration of the Senate-passed Trade Adjustment Assistance program. It is eight months overdue. In allowing the expanded TAA program to expire in February, House Republican leaders shunted decades of bipartisan cooperation over the program and caved to the demands of their party’s rigid ideologues. This program has helped retrain hundreds of thousands of American workers and it should be renewed without any further delay. I am pleased to now see a path forward on TAA and the Generalized System of Preferences, which also should never have been allowed to expire."
McDermott: “It’s unfortunate that it has taken this long to reauthorize Trade Adjustment Assistance as thousands of American workers have suffered because of the delay. But, I welcome the news that the White House and House Republicans have finally reached an agreement that creates a path forward, and I urge House Republicans to bring H.R. 2832 to the House floor as soon as possible.
“Under the agreement, I understand that all three pending free trade agreements will be submitted for consideration as well. I’ll be supporting the Korea FTA and the Panama FTA when they come to up for a vote because the Obama administration, building on House Democrats efforts’, successfully addressed the fundamental flaws in both agreements. But, I am opposed to the Colombia FTA - the Administration’s efforts have fallen short and failed to address the union violence and impunity, as well as the workers’ rights issues."
