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U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown
How Trade is
Like a Baseball Game
Folks in Washington like to make big promises when it comes to our
trade deals. But for too long, we’ve seen nothing but bad results.
We’ve seen what so-called free trade agreements have done to our
workers and our communities over the past two decades. We’ve seen the
factories close and the stores get boarded up. That’s why I voted
against giving the president authority to rush through a huge new trade
agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. And it’s why I’ll continue to
fight for a level playing field for American workers and American
businesses.
It’s true that trade deals have created jobs, and that the TPP could as
well. But this ignores the millions more jobs that have been lost
because of unfair trade deals.
I like to look at things in baseball terms. Lauding gains from exports
while ignoring a flood of imports – and skyrocketing trade deficits –
is like reporting half of the score of a baseball game. The Cleveland
Indians scoring three runs doesn’t help the team much if the Yankees
scored six runs.
We know that past trade deals have replaced manufacturing jobs—with
good pay and good benefits—with low-wage service sector jobs. We can’t
let that happen again.
And we also know that we make deals with countries that don’t play by
the same rules we do—they have lax labor and environmental standards,
and what international rules they do have to follow too often get
ignored.
That’s why we can’t have trade promotion without trade enforcement.
Instead of rushing a bill through last month, the Senate should have
taken the time to get this right and to include my important amendments
that protect Ohio workers and manufacturers. I fought for provisions
that would guarantee a level playing field for our workers and
companies by cracking down on countries who manipulate their
currencies, and that would give American businesses new tools to fight
back against illegal foreign imports.
I also fought to make sure China isn’t able to sneak into this trade
pact at a later date, without any oversight or Congressional approval.
I’m going to continue fighting to get these important protections to
the president’s desk. This massive agreement could affect forty percent
of the global economy—it is too important to rush through.
We know that trade done right can create prosperity. I want trade that
lifts up Ohio’s middle class families and that creates good-paying
jobs—not trade that leads to more shuttered plants and shattered
communities. That can only happen when the rules aren’t rigged and we
have a level playing field.
Unfortunately, with the TPP we know which kind of trade we’re
getting—the kind the results in corporate handouts and worker sellouts.
Sincerely,
Sherrod Brown
U.S. Senator
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