After the bills passed the House, Michaud released the following statement:
Mainers have seen firsthand the devastation free trade agreements have brought to our communities. What the Congress is doing this week continues the same policies of the past that have cost us jobs and the closures of businesses from Kittery to Fort Kent.
In fact, this is the most significant trade policy expansion since NAFTA, and its consequences for America’s middle class will be enormous. Since NAFTA, we have lost more than five million manufacturing jobs, and we’ve seen more than fifty thousand factories close in the last ten years alone.
Why on earth would we want to go down that road again? The South Korea deal alone will bring more of the same, costing us 159,000 jobs and more factory closures. And all this comes at a time of nine percent unemployment and when the American middle class can least afford it.
While we are going in the wrong direction on trade today, we have an opportunity for a course correction by addressing the biggest challenge facing our nation when it comes to trade – China’s unfair trade practices. A good start would be for the House to vote on the Senate-passed currency manipulation bill, which is estimated to create hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs. This would make a positive difference in the lives of millions of Americans and the bottom lines of our businesses. And it would represent a true change to the failed trade policy that the Congress pushed forward today.
I’m disappointed the motion to recommit on the Colombia free trade agreement failed, but I’m confident that a standalone vote on the currency bill would pass.
Do you think these Free Trade Agreements will harm Maine? Share your thoughts below.
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