WASHINGTON, DC - Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) today issued the following statement after the International Trade Commission (ITC) released a Congressionally-mandated report on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement’s projected impact on the U.S. economy:
“My initial review of the ITC report only confirms my position that I cannot support TPP as negotiated.
“It is deeply troubling to read that overall U.S. manufacturing employment is expected to decline as a result of the agreement, and that the overall U.S. trade deficit is expected to worsen too, including in the auto and auto parts industry. And the ITC appears to confirm my concern that the weak automotive rules of origin in the agreement will result in lost auto parts jobs in the United States.
“The economic gains the ITC expects from TPP are insignificant, estimating that the U.S. GDP will increase just 0.15 percent by the year 2032, and employment will increase by just 0.07 percent by that time. And even these figures are based on a traditional model which makes some changes but remains flawed. The figures are also based on an optimistic assumption that our trading partners will open their markets to our exports, rather than simply replacing their existing tariff barriers with new non-tariff barriers, even though we have repeatedly seen that happen in the past.
“Additionally, a number of important pieces appear to be lacking in the report. For example, the report does not appear to analyze in any depth how TPP would impact income and wealth inequality in the United States. Nor does it address the costs associated with workers losing their jobs or factories leaving communities as a result of the agreement. For example, it includes no more than a footnote to a recent groundbreaking study that finds that it may take a decade for workers who lose their jobs due to imports to find new employment with comparable wages. Those “short-term" transition costs are largely ignored in this report.
“And, whereas the ITC’s estimates relate almost exclusively to the tariff provisions of the agreement, almost all of the concerns expressed by a wide range of members of Congress and stakeholders relate to the many non-tariff provisions of the agreement. The report provides no new insight into, for example, whether the labor obligations will be fully implemented by our trading partners, or how implementation or a lack thereof would impact employment in the United States; and whether the benefits of tariff liberalization will be offset by things like currency manipulation, which is essentially not addressed in the agreement. And yet those are some of the most real and pressing economic questions about the agreement."
In January, Rep. Levin testified at an ITC hearing on the potential economic impact of TPP, urging the Commission to consider a number of key points when developing its report.
