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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:25.5pt"><b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">The Detroit News<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:25.5pt"><b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">Hoffa: What America needs from its trade pacts<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:52.5pt"><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">James P. Hoffa</span></b><i><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#999999;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">12:08
a.m. EDT May 13, 2015</span></i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2015/05/13/hoffa-fast-track/27197695/">http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2015/05/13/hoffa-fast-track/27197695/</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<span class="-newsgate-macro-cci-drop-initial-"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333">The U.S. Senate has decided, for now, not to put the Trans-Pacific Partnership on the fast track. That's a good thing. This issue deserves
a full debate.</span></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:45.0pt;line-height:16.5pt;background:white;font-stretch: normal;orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: 1;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333">Fast track trade authority would allow bad trade pacts like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to sail through Capitol Hill with little debate and no chance to be amended. Thousands
of Americans would see their jobs shipped overseas, and many more would see their wages drop. In return, our homes would be flooded with unsafe food and products from abroad.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:45.0pt;line-height:16.5pt;background:white;font-stretch: normal;orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: 1;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333">Michiganians know all too well the high cost of previous trade deals. Luckily, there are some elected officials who are on the side of workers. Congressman Sandy Levin, D-Royal Oak,
the senior Democrat on the House Ways & Means Committee, is one of them, standing up to big business interests who have been pushing for more of the same when it comes to trade.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:45.0pt;line-height:16.5pt;background:white;font-stretch: normal;orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: 1;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333">Instead of going along with those efforts, Levin is blazing his own path. He's offered legislation that would make TPP negotiators accountable to Congress as they work out all of
the outstanding issues on TPP, and would not allow the deal to be expedited unless a bipartisan collection of House and Senate trade advisers determined instructions have been followed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:45.0pt;line-height:16.5pt;background:white;font-stretch: normal;orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: 1;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333">A bipartisan buy-in for trade deals is essential, because there is little of that with the current version of fast track. Enough Senate Democrats voted no to stall the legislation
for now. Why? Because there are plenty of problems with TPP that fast track wouldn't allow to be fixed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:45.0pt;line-height:16.5pt;background:white;font-stretch: normal;orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: 1;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333">Take currency manipulation. Other nations adjust the value of their money so their exports will be cheap and Americans will want to buy them up. The flip side of that is it drives
up the prices of U.S. products in those countries. This is exactly what we've seen with the auto industry. American cars are extraordinarily expensive in many places overseas because of this. And that costs jobs. Michigan is number one in job loss due to Japanese
currency manipulation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:45.0pt;line-height:16.5pt;background:white;font-stretch: normal;orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: 1;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333">There are also significant bipartisan concerns involving the investor state dispute resolution process. As WikiLeaks reported back in March, language included in the Investor State
Dispute Settlement chapter of the TPP would grant new rights to companies to challenge copyrights, patents and other intellectual property. That means corporations could sue the U.S. or other countries included in the deal if they didn't like their laws. Such
challenges would be handled by an unaccountable international arbitration forum. And taxpayers would end up paying the tab if the private sector wins.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:45.0pt;line-height:16.5pt;background:white;font-stretch: normal;orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: 1;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333">And the 12-nation Pacific Rim trade agreement could also end the Buy American program, a more than 80-year-old federal procurement vehicle that gives U.S firms a leg up in securing
federal government contracts. The secretive TPP could allow foreign companies to compete for the tax dollars of Michigan residents.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:45.0pt;line-height:16.5pt;background:white;font-stretch: normal;orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: 1;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333">None of these are partisan issues. But they are significant issues for many Americans. They need to be addressed by congressional leaders now, before it's too late.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:45.0pt;line-height:16.5pt;background:white;font-stretch: normal;orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: 1;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px">
<span class="-newsgate-paragraph-cci-endnote-contact-"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333">James P. Hoffa is president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.</span></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:45.0pt;line-height:16.5pt;background:white;font-stretch: normal;orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: 1;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px">
<span class="-newsgate-character-cci-intro-bold-"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333"><a href="http://letters@detroitnews.com/" title="http://letters@detroitnews.com/"><span style="color:#1990E5">letters@detroitnews.com</span></a></span></b></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:45.0pt;line-height:16.5pt;background:white;font-stretch: normal;orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: 1;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px">
<span class="-newsgate-paragraph-cci-factbox-head-"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333">Labor Voices</span></b></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:45.0pt;line-height:16.5pt;background:white;font-stretch: normal;orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: 1;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333">Labor Voices columns are written on a rotating basis by United Auto Workers President Dennis Williams, Teamsters President James Hoffa, Michigan AFL-CIO President Karla Swift and
Michigan Education Association President Steven Cook.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Bell MT","serif"">Michael F. Dolan, J.D.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Bell MT","serif"">Legislative Representative<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Bell MT","serif"">International Brotherhood of Teamsters<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Bell MT","serif"">Desk 202.624.6891<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Bell MT","serif"">Fax 202.624.8973<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Bell MT","serif"">Cell 202.437.2254<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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