[CTC] Updates: Trade, TPP and the US Election Cycle

[Dolan, Mike]

Pres: "It's a position of Trump's that he has expressed over the past three decades."
WI SEN: "On Monday, Democratic challenger Russ Feingold called on Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson to follow his lead and oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership."
AR-02 (GOP Primary): "I'm not for giving multinational corporations everything they want. I'm for standing up for the United States first. In communist Vietnam the minimum wage is 56 cents an hour. We can't compete with that on a fair basis unless we have provisions in there that deal with currency manipulation and have the kind of worker protections, and consumer protections, and environmental protections that we have," says Olree. He also says workers of all nations need the right to unionize to secure better terms of employment ...


Donald Trump Spoke Forcefully Against NAFTA At A 1993 Business Conference
Buzzfeed
By Andrew Kaczynski
February 29, 2016
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/trump-spoke-against-nafta-at-1993-convention?utm_term=.tj7lZoAoQ#.obWr8kmk2

Donald Trump, throughout his presidential campaign, has distinguished himself from free-trade Republicans, saying he would end the North American Free Trade Agreement and condemning President Obama's trade deal with Asian countries.

Trump told 60 Minutes of NAFTA last year, "We will either renegotiate it or we will break it."

It's a position of Trump's that he has expressed over the past three decades. In appearances and writings dating back to the 1980s, Trump has criticized U.S. trade deficits and called agreements between the U.S. and other countries "bad deals."

According to multiple archived news accounts reviewed by BuzzFeed News, Trump spoke forcefully against NAFTA at a California-based convention in 1993, when the agreement's ratification was being debated in Congress. The accounts appear to be the only record of Trump's speech. A representative for the conference said it wasn't taped that year.

"Trump, who entertained the crowd with details of his financial problems during 1990s, was one of the few to come out against NAFTA," read the Daily News of Los Angeles account of an October 1993 speech to the ninth annual Bakersfield Business Conference, which was held in a stadium on the grounds of California State University, Bakersfield.

Another local newspaper account of Trump's speech, from the Lodi News-Sentinel, also has Trump saying the plan "would only benefit Mexico."

Trump was opposed by three former presidents at the conference. Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and George H.W. Bush all spoke in favor of the deal.

The Fresno Bee reported Trump saying of the planned agreement: "We never make a good deal."

>From the Bee:

Real estate magnate Trump was the only speaker swimming against the NAFTA current, criticizing the treaty not so much for its concept but rather for what he sees as poor negotiating by U.S. trade representatives.

NAFTA is poorly crafted, Trump said, as all our other trade treaties seem to be. "We never make a good deal."

"It's a no-brainer," Trump said, according to the Long Beach Press-Telegram. "The Mexicans want it, and that doesn't sound good to me."

Trump also claimed the Kuwaitis "truly hate our guts," the Japanese "are laughing at us," and that "mobsters" were taking over Indian reservation gambling and creating a "crime wave like you haven't seen since Al Capone."

NAFTA was eventually approved by the House and the Senate in November 1993 and was signed by President Bill Clinton early the next month.

Russ Feingold calls on Ron Johnson to oppose Trans-Pacific trade deal
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By Bill Glauber
February 29, 2016
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/russ-feingold-calls-on-ron-johnson-to-oppose-tpp-trade-deal-b99678450z1-370517481.html

In the race for the U.S. Senate, trade is yet another issue that separates the candidates.

On Monday, Democratic challenger Russ Feingold called on Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson to follow his lead and oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal negotiated by President Barack Obama's administration and 11 Pacific-Rim countries.

"My opponent said he needs more time to review it. More time for what? If the Trans-Pacific Partnership will only do more damage to Wisconsin communities, what does he need to know?" Johnson told labor leaders gathered at the Wisconsin State Council of Machinist Conference.

In early February during an appearance at Marquette University, Johnson expressed support for free trade in general because "it does lift all boats," but kept his options open on whether he'll back the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

With a business background in manufacturing, Johnson has said trade deals can create good-paying jobs for Wisconsinites.

Feingold has long courted labor union support and voted against trade agreements during his three terms in the U.S. Senate, including the North American Free Trade Agreement. He claimed deals like NAFTA upended families and "gutted" Wisconsin's middle class.

He tried to make trade an issue in the 2010 race but failed as he lost to Johnson.

Congress is poised for a bruising fight on the deal. Last summer, Johnson voted with many other Republicans in giving Obama Trade Promotion Authority to fast track negotiations.

Key Democrats have come out against the deal, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who moved to the left on the issue amid the presidential primary challenge of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont.

Donald Trump, the New York businessman and Republican Party presidential front-runner, has said trade deals have cost the United States millions of jobs.

During this year's campaign, Feingold and Johnson have launched long-range volleys over trade. Johnson has chided Feingold for his quick rejection of the Trans-Pacific deal.

"This is an agreement of thousands of pages, and trust me, incredibly complex provisions," Johnson said during his February appearance at Marquette. "There is good, there is bad."

Johnson said he has been reaching out and soliciting "input from all the individuals, businesses, organizations, groups that are going to be affected here in Wisconsin by TPP. I'm not going to come to a snap judgment. I don't know how anybody could do that. How incredibly close minded is that?"

A Johnson campaign spokesman, Brian Reisinger, said Monday that Feingold "decided months ago to try for cheap political points by condemning this deal before he'd even read it."

He added that Johnson "believes the job of a Senator is to do his homework and put facts ahead of rhetoric or politics."

Feingold said Johnson has had more than enough time to stake out a position on the Pacific trade pact. He said a draft of the agreement was available on the Internet March, 25, 2015.

"I had an opportunity to review that draft and those provisions," he said. "I looked at it carefully and when I announced for the U.S. Senate the first position that I took, based on reviewing the rip-off that occurs in that agreement, was to oppose this agreement."

"Senator Johnson has had the opportunity since November to review this agreement that I had already reviewed," Feingold said. "I have no evidence that he looked at it."

"It's time for him to take a position," Feingold said of Johnson. "Four months is long enough."

Feingold calls on Sen. Johnson to join him in opposition to TPP
WKOW
By Greg Neumann
February 29, 2016
http://www.wkow.com/story/31343773/2016/02/29/feingold-calls-on-sen-johnson-to-join-him-in-opposition-to-tpp

U.S. Senate Candidate Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) called on his opponent, incumbent Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), to oppose the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal in a speech before the Wisconsin State Council of Machinists Monday.

"The full text of the agreement was released by the Obama administration on November 5th of last year, nearly four months ago. And draft versions existed online even before that. I have reviewed it. It's a raw deal for Wisconsin families, and I oppose it in the strongest terms," said Feingold.

TPP is an agreement between Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, and Vietnam that eliminates or reduces tariff and non-tariff barriers across substantially all trade in goods and services between the countries.

But Feingold said just like the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) approved in the 1990s, it will cost American workers their jobs by allowing companies to more easily relocate positions overseas.

Proponents of the TPP say it will allow American companies to compete on a level playing field in the growing Asian market.

Senator Johnson voted to fast-track the TPP deal, meaning it will go to an up-or-down vote in the Senate with no changes. However, Sen. Johnson has not said how we will vote on the deal itself.

"So today, I'm calling on my opponent, the incumbent Senator, to stand up for the middle-class and working families of Wisconsin by announcing his opposition to this terrible deal," said Feingold.

27 News has reached out to Sen. Johnson's campaign for a statement.

Trade Deals Flare-up Republican Primary Race For U.S. House Seat In Central Arkansas
UALR Public Radio
By Jacob Kauffman
February 27, 2016
http://ualrpublicradio.org/post/trade-deals-flare-republican-primary-race-us-house-seat-central-arkansas#stream/0

It's been a quiet contest but U.S. Representative French Hill is facing a Republican primary challenger for the 2nd District seat. His challenger Brock Olree wants to bring trade deals to the forefront of the congressional race in central Arkansas.

"Employment statistics for these seven counties, there are only about 1,500 more people employed now than there were in 2007, so we need faster economic growth," said Rep. French Hill.

Hill is in his first term in Congress. Before that - among many things - he founded a bank, then sold it. He's focused on peeling back post-financial collapse regulations like Dodd-Frank, arguing it'll spur economic growth. That's bread and butter GOP talk says David Keith, a journalism professor at the University of Central Arkansas.

"The Republican Party and the big banks themselves want less regulation and French Hill is going to be somebody who is going to align with them very closely," says Keith.

Brock Olree, Hill's challenger, has more of a populist bend.

"We can't even have a good honest debate among the people who have different ideas because the wealthy and the special interests are controlling so much of what's going," says Olree. "People on the left and on the right end up feeling betrayed by the people they elect to office."

The Searcy native briefly taught at Harding University and now works for an online Bible study school. Olree says trade deals like NAFTA and the potential Trans Pacific Partnership, TPP, are top priority economic issues.

"I'm not for giving multinational corporations everything they want. I'm for standing up for the United States first. In communist Vietnam the minimum wage is 56 cents an hour. We can't compete with that on a fair basis unless we have provisions in there that deal with currency manipulation and have the kind of worker protections, and consumer protections, and environmental protections that we have," says Olree. He also says workers of all nations need the right to unionize to secure better terms of employment.

Representative Hill of course does not say he wants American jobs to be shipped overseas.

"Some of the barriers to bringing jobs back to the country in my view is the differential in tax rates for our big companies. They are moving some of their operations off shore for sales purposes but for other reasons, when they move them off for tax purposes that's not a good idea," says Hill. "We need to make sure our tax code is competitive so that people put their manufacturing and their headquarters locations here in the U.S."

Olree contends Hill's trade concerns are with corporate backers who advocate for the still un-finalized Trans Pacific Partnership. Hill voted to authorize what's called trade promotion authority, giving the President expanded negotiating authority, with any deal sent to Congress for approval.

"Every president since FDR has had some form of delegated authority from the Congress. This is how the Congress oversees what our presidents do on trade. The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a proposed trade arrangement that the President has done but it has not gotten full review in Congress. I'm not sure when it will actually be brought up for a vote, it's being studied now," says Hill.

Olree thinks trade promotion authority, or TPA, is a fast track to a trade deal that will send jobs to Asia.

"It's sort of a stand-in for voting for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPA itself limits Congress's authority. Congress can't amend the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Congress is limited in the amount of debate. I think that's giving up too much of Congress's authority under the Constitution to the president," said Olree.

But will this divide over trade amount to anything on Arkansas's March 1 primary?

"Hill doesn't have to put a lot of effort into this," says David Keith at UCA. "I can't imagine that he's going to have any sleepless nights between now and Tuesday."

Keith says other issues may be of greater importance to Republican primary voters - though Donald Trump has made the issue of outsourcing central to his campaign.

"Trade issues overall will resonate with the Republican Party and it's a message you've certainly seen discussed among the presidential candidates but Olree's not the person to deliver it," Keith said.

The 59-year old Hill has raised over $1 million for his campaign. Mr. Olree, age 37, has raised about $20,000.




Michael F. Dolan, J.D.
Legislative Representative
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Desk  202.624.6891
Fax    202.624.8973
Cell    202.437.2254

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20160301/c27ea0b4/attachment-0001.htm>