[CTC] Kaptur Holds Hearing on Pending NAFTA Renegotiation

Sat Aug 5 00:26:13 PDT 2017

*Kaptur Holds Hearing on Pending NAFTA Renegotiation*

*NAFTA Has Harmed Ohio Workers & Farmers, But More Accountability Needed in
the Renegotiation Process, Say Witnesses*

Brook Park, Ohio — U.S. Representative Marcy Kaptur hosted a panel of local
experts on Thursday for a hearing on the pending renegotiation of the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).  The timely hearing comes less that
two weeks before negotiations formally begin in mid-August, the outcome of
which is likely to have major implications for Ohio’s economy, as well as
President Donald J. Trump’s political fate.

“Thank you to the citizens who came here today, and the experts and leaders
from across industries and organizations for providing valuable input that
I will take back with me to Washington,” said Congresswoman Kaptur. “For
too long bad trade deals have devastated our region, and put industries and
workers alike in an unfair competitive position. Now, as the President and
his team look to renegotiate NAFTA they should know that mild tweaks won’t
cut it for workers in Ohio, in Mexico or in Canada. We need a complete
rework of this agreement to ensure we have a continental compact that
raises wages on all sides of the border and a level playing field where
American workers and American products can compete and succeed.”

The Congresswoman was joined by diverse witnesses from labor, farm,
environmental and faith organizations, who described NAFTA’s harmful
impacts on Ohio livelihoods, as well as needed reforms in a NAFTA
replacement deal.  Most called for greater transparency in the NAFTA
renegotiation process, and testified that the White House’s
recently-released NAFTA renegotiation plan is not strong enough to meet the
President’s campaign pledge to make NAFTA work for working people.

“Ohio has lost more than 300,000 manufacturing jobs since NAFTA was
enacted.  To turn that dynamic around, NAFTA’s replacement must end
offshoring incentives for investors; it must end NAFTA’s ban on ‘Buy
American’ government purchasing preferences; and it must enact strong and
enforceable labor and environmental standards.  So far, the Trump
administration hasn’t committed to any of those much-needed changes,” said
Maria Wilkinson from Americans for Democratic Action.

Donnie Blatt from the United Steelworkers stated, “I’m deeply concerned
that the Trump administration intends to renegotiate NAFTA
behind-closed-doors with the aid of hundreds of corporate advisors, while
the public and the press are completely shut out.  If corporations are
allowed to dictate NAFTA’s new terms, the pact could become even worse for
working families in Ohio and across the continent.”

“President Trump has tried to paint the trade debate as a question of the
United States versus the world, when it’s really one of corporate elites
against the rest of us.  The average Mexican worker's real wages have
declined nearly 10 percent under NAFTA,” said Brian Stefan-Szittai,
Coordinator of the InterReligious Task Force on Central America.  “The
abusive, sweatshop working conditions in Mexico need to be addressed, both
so that working people there have a chance at a better life, and so that
Ohio employers aren’t consistently undercut.”

Some of the state-specific NAFTA outcomes mentioned during the hearing
include that Ohio has lost nearly a third of its manufacturing jobs since
NAFTA went into effect in 1994 and the World Trade Organization agreements
in 1995.  More than 151,000 specific Ohio jobs have been certified under
one narrow government program, Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), as lost
to offshoring or imports since NAFTA.  This is a significant undercount
given limits in the types of jobs lost to trade that TAA covers.  According
to the Department of Labor, manufacturing workers who lose jobs to trade
and find reemployment are typically forced to take pay cuts.  Two of every
five rehired in 2016 were paid less in their new jobs.  One in four lost
greater than 20 percent of their income.  That means a $7,700 pay cut for
the median wage worker earning $38,000.

The White House formally released its NAFTA renegotiation plan
<http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/blog/2017/07/17/ustrs-nafta-renegotiation-plan-unacceptable/>
on
July 17th, roughly a month before the first formal round of NAFTA’s
renegotiation scheduled to begin in Washington, DC from August 16 to 20.

Dan O’Malley from North Shore AFL-CIO said, “We are proud to stand with
Congresswoman Kaptur in her fight for better trade policies. Working people
are tired of empty rhetoric from some politicians who claim to support fair
trade. We are glad that Rep. Kaptur continues to truly listen to Ohio’s
workers and fight hard for them in Congress.”

“We know that it is possible to have trade agreements that don’t engage the
U.S. in a race to the bottom, but instead lift up our own workers and
workers throughout the world,” said Lee Geisse, Ohio BlueGreen Alliance
Regional Program Manager. “We applaud Rep. Kaptur’s work on this issue that
is so vital to the future of Ohio’s economy and workers.”

“Ohio voters who supported President Trump on his promise to fix or
eliminate NAFTA have reason to be disappointed in his actions to date.  His
administration’s NAFTA renegotiation plan fails to take the bold steps
needed to replace NAFTA with a deal that works for working families.
Instead, it relies heavily on language from past, business-as-usual trade
policies that have privileged corporate interests ahead of others,” said
Elizabeth Swager, national field director of Citizens Trade Campaign.
 “Between his weak NAFTA renegotiation plan and the President’s very real
conflicts of interest and potential for self-dealing in NAFTA’s
renegotiation, there is a stronger-than-ever need for transparency in these
talks moving forward."

###

Testimony of Nick “Sonny” Nardi Given at NAFTA Field Hearing Hosted by
Marcy Kaptur

The following is the official transcript of testimony given by Teamsters
Local Union 416 President Nick “Sonny” Nardi at the NAFTA Field Hearing at
UAW Local 1250 on Aug. 3. The hearing was hosted by Rep. Marcy Kaptur
(D-OH).

“Good afternoon.  My name is Sonny Nardi and I am President of Teamsters
Local 416 in Cleveland.

“In May 2000, 320 Teamsters got laid off from the Mr. Coffee plant in
Glenwillow, about 20 miles east of here.  Their jobs went to Mexico because
of the North American [so-called] Free Trade Agreement.

“My Local, Teamsters 416, lost hundreds of jobs to NAFTA

   -

   120 jobs at HOSPECO on 79th and Carnegie in Cleveland,
   -

   60 jobs at Mueller Electric on Pain avenue in Cleveland
   -

   the Mr. Coffee Filter Division
   -

   96 jobs in Bedford Heights and
   -

   115 jobs at Blue Coral Car Wax in Maple Heights.

“These were all good paying jobs with benefits Many were inner city jobs,
workers couldwalk to work and had much tenure.

“Most of these guys, because their production jobs were simply shifted to
Mexican plants, were eligible for some federal benefits under a narrow
NAFTA program called “Trade Adjustment Assistance” -- or TAA.  Here in
Ohio, under NAFTA TAA, more than 150,000 workers have been certified as
having lost their jobs due to offshoring – plant relocation like Mr. Coffee
– or because of increased imports from Mexico and Canada that reduce
production and jobs at American companies.

“But as everybody knows the TAA totals are the tip of the iceberg because
that program certifies only the manufacturing jobs that we have lost
because of NAFTA – not the services jobs that depend on a strong
manufacturing base.

“So when you factor in those jobs, as well as the manufacturing jobs Ohio
has lost due to the U.S. trade deficit with China since it joined the WTO,
 Ohio has probably lost twice the TAA numbers – probably north of 300,000
manufacturing-related jobs.

“Very few states, if any, have endured greater per capita economic harm,
due to our flawed and failed so-called “free trade” policies, than Ohio.
And on a personal note as a longtime northern Ohio Teamster leader, there
aren’t many Local unions that have been decimated the way 416 has by NAFTA.

“And on another point of personal privilege, I want to say that American
workers, not just here in Cleveland but all over the country, have had no
better friend, no greater ally, than Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur.

“Some folks here are probably too young to remember the NAFTA
Accountability Act back in the mid-90s.  That was Marci Kaptur shining a
legislative light on the NAFTA disaster even as the jobs were starting to
flow south.

“That’s why this field hearing is so important and that’s why the
renegotiation of NAFTA is an historic opportunity.

“So I want to spend a couple minutes on how we can overhaul the NAFTA to
begin to repair the damage.  Specifically, I want to describe some things
that must be included in a new NAFTA, new Chapters, as well as some old
parts of NAFTA that must come out.

“But let me be really clear at the outset – if the Trump trade team does
not renegotiate NAFTA in a thorough way that works for workers, then the US
should quit the deal altogether.

“I can’t speak for the other folks on this panel today, but the Teamsters
demand a complete overhaul of the NAFTA model.  No cut-n-paste of the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, no tweaking around the edges. We want a NAFTA
upgrade that puts the interests of working families first and foremost.

“To achieve that goal, the top priority has to be a new Labor Rights
Chapter to replace the weak and unenforceable side agreement added to NAFTA
to get Congress to support ratification in 1993.

“When it comes to North American worker rights, we’ve got to level the
playing field, so Mexican workers and union organizers have the same rights
we take for granted up here. That will reduce the incentive for
corporations to relocate jobs down there, if they can’t oppress labor or
avoid collective bargaining.

“The new NAFTA must prohibit child labor and forced labor and protect the
freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively through
independent unions.  Further, those fundamental labor rights must be
enforceable by the same or better trade sanctions that protect commercial
interests.

“Moreover, a truly modernized NAFTA should establish a process to determine
basic living wage rates in all regions of all three countries and an
enforcement mechanism to guarantee a decent standard of living, including
the ability to save for retirement.

“All these basic labor rights and the sanctions that protect them and the
commitment to living wage must be enforced by an independent tri-national
labor secretariat that can hear labor cases and resolve them on behalf of
all workers, including migrant workers.

“Last point on labor: this new NAFTA chapter will serve as a template for
future negotiations, so it is crucial that America get it right this time.

“Another new chapter that must be part of the NAFTA replacement model is
Currency.  One of the reasons we could not support the TPP was the previous
administration refused to include enforceable disciplines against currency
manipulation.

“America has learned the hard way how our trading partners manage their
currencies against the dollar to increase their exports to us (and limit
imports from us), which increases our trade deficits, which costs American
jobs.  We’re not saying that Mexico or Canada is currently manipulating
their currencies.  But we are saying that a replacement trade model that we
will support must finally address the issue of currency misalignment.

“Let me finish by mentioning a couple bad NAFTA provisions that must come
out during renegotiation.

“The first is Government Procurement, which is NAFTA Chapter 10. It has
undermined “Buy American” laws by requiring the federal government to treat
foreign bidders as if they were U.S. bidders.  To Buy American is to Hire
American, that’s how it works, and we want our jobs back and our tax
dollars spent at home.

“Going in to these new NAFTA talks, the U.S. should retract all procurement
commitments that undermine responsible bidding standards and all domestic
or local preferences.  Teamsters and taxpayers from both sides of the
partisan divide, support “Buy American” -- and we don’t want the new NAFTA
to weaken that economic policy, especially as we look forward to the
infrastructure investment that this country needs so badly.

“The second thing that must come out is the controversial system of private
corporate courts that protect foreign investors.  NAFTA’s Chapter 11
introduced so-called “investor-state dispute settlement” (ISDS) into our
“free trade” deals, giving foreign companies superior rights over U.S.
firms.

“ISDS undermines the rule of law and facilitates offshoring by creating
unique privileges and secretive arbitration chambers in which foreign
investors, but not American firms, can challenge laws they claim will cut
profits.

“A third bad provision, of particular interest to the Teamsters, is in
Chapter 12, which deals with trade in services.  The old NAFTA opened up
American highways to unsafe Mexican-domiciled long-haul carriers.

“We and our allies like Advocates for Highway Safety, the Sierra Club and
the Owner-Operator Independent Truckers have fought for many years, in the
Congress and in the courts, to keep that provision from being fully
implemented.

“The original intent of the NAFTA negotiators was to keep US interstates
closed to Mexican carriers until the safety of the trucks and drivers could
be certified.  “That has never happened.  Accordingly, we call on the new
NAFTA RE-negotiators to end this controversy once and for all.  The new
NAFTA should require Mexican domiciled trucks to transfer their loads to US
trucks in the 20 mile wide border commercial zone.

“In conclusion, I have named two new chapters that must be included in
NAFTA 2.0 and three bad aspects that must come out – five reforms that will
keep and create middle class jobs and help America lead the way towards a
new trade policy paradigm, a template for all future international
commercial agreements.

“But seeing as we are enjoying the hospitality of our UAW brothers and
sisters here in Local 1250, I want to mention one last NAFTA fix.

“The Rules of Origin for autos and auto parts should be beefed up.  The
“regional value content” should be raised and all loopholes closed.  In
order to enjoy the low tariffs and NAFTA market access, all cars and trucks
that are made in the three countries should not have components that are
made in other countries where wages are suppressed by companies that
oppress workers and pay them less than their labor is worth.

“That solidarity is what this opportunity is all about.  Autoworkers and
Steelworkers and Machinists and Teamsters, the labor unions that have had
the worst experience under NAFTA and now have the greatest stake in a real
overhaul in its renegotiation.  We must stand in solidarity with our
brothers and sisters in the independent unions in Canada and Mexico. And in
turn, all of labor must stand in solidarity with environmental activists,
consumer advocates and the family farmers.

“Together, we have been fighting NAFTA and its expansion for a generation.
Now we can work together, with our allies in Congress, to finally fix it."

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826
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