Interviews
AMTAC opposes Peru FTA
02 Nov '07
3 min read
The American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC) announced its opposition to the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the United States and Peru.
“The Peru FTA simply is a continuation of the flawed trade policy model of trade deficits, offshoring and job losses,” said AMTAC Executive Director Auggie Tantillo.
“Evidently, a key message from the last election – stop offshoring good middle-class U.S. manufacturing jobs – still has not registered with the new leadership in this Congress. Like the congressional leadership from the party fired by the voters last November, they publicly are more focused on passing job-killing FTAs, like Peru, rather than on confronting trade cheats like China,” Tantillo charged.
“Congress spending the entire year focusing on an unpopular Peru FTA instead of passing a strong anti-currency manipulation bill is an enormous disappointment to U.S. manufacturers desperate for relief from China's predatory trade practices. The value of the illegal currency subsidy given by China to its manufacturing exporters dwarfs the trade covered by the proposed Peru FTA several times over,” Tantillo remarked.
Noting that the United States has lost more than 3.1 million manufacturing jobs since 2001 and is projected to run a trade deficit with China in excess of $270 billion in 2007, Tantillo said, “Rather than focusing on real trade problems, Congress is being asked to pass an FTA with a country that only could afford to buy 0.28 percent of U.S. exports in 2006.”
“The Peru FTA simply is a continuation of the flawed trade policy model of trade deficits, offshoring and job losses,” said AMTAC Executive Director Auggie Tantillo.
“Evidently, a key message from the last election – stop offshoring good middle-class U.S. manufacturing jobs – still has not registered with the new leadership in this Congress. Like the congressional leadership from the party fired by the voters last November, they publicly are more focused on passing job-killing FTAs, like Peru, rather than on confronting trade cheats like China,” Tantillo charged.
“Congress spending the entire year focusing on an unpopular Peru FTA instead of passing a strong anti-currency manipulation bill is an enormous disappointment to U.S. manufacturers desperate for relief from China's predatory trade practices. The value of the illegal currency subsidy given by China to its manufacturing exporters dwarfs the trade covered by the proposed Peru FTA several times over,” Tantillo remarked.
Noting that the United States has lost more than 3.1 million manufacturing jobs since 2001 and is projected to run a trade deficit with China in excess of $270 billion in 2007, Tantillo said, “Rather than focusing on real trade problems, Congress is being asked to pass an FTA with a country that only could afford to buy 0.28 percent of U.S. exports in 2006.”
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