And while the worker rights provisions in this trade bill are stronger than in past bills, I have no confidence that this administration will enforce them.
It is disheartening and frankly confusing that the first major trade bill introduced by the Democrats could end up costing tens of thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs. This bill is a disappointment to those of us who hoped that the Democratic Congress would reverse the recently disastrous trend of exploding trade deficits and the off shoring of critical middle class jobs.
Cass Johnson, President of the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), stated: While the aims of the bill are laudable, the trade portions of the bill gives enormous new benefits to countries that are already export superstars while handing Wal Mart and other big importers a one billion dollar annual tax credit.
The price tag for this lands squarely on the shoulders of U.S., African and Central American workers, among others, that are already losing out to the Bangladesh-China connection. That price tag is too high.
Johnson noted that job losses in the U.S. textile and apparel sector have totaled 163,000, or 23 percent, since quotas on Bangladesh, Cambodia and other major suppliers were removed in 2005.
Johnson said, “Trade policy has gotten a bad name in this country because the Congress has a history of passing trade packages that seem mostly designed to help out importers whiletransferring good paying jobs out of this country.
While we have no argument with much of this bill, but we should not let the trade portions of this bill repeat that mistake. We will work hard with the many groups that will be hurt by this bill to make sure the damaging provisions are removed.”
-Ltd..jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Thermore (Far East) Ltd.")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (TSllC Ltd)")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF)")
