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Casey sees no upside in ‘fast track’ trade legislation

4 min read

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey presented some compelling statistics Thursday to voice his opposition to proposed “fast track” legislation that would enable President Obama to advance trade deals without negotiating them in Congress.

On Wednesday, following approval by the Republican-led Senate Finance Committee for full consideration in the Senate of the “Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015,” Casey, a Democratic member of the finance committee, said the bill, also called Trade Promotion Authority legislation, “is flawed and is set to leave Pennsylvania with the short end of the stick once again.”

Casey said Thursday he offered amendments to promote “Buy America,” protect wages and crack down on currency manipulation.

“Instead of focusing on boosting wages for the middle class, Congress is speeding toward another NAFTA-style deal. We’ve been told that previous trade deals would bring jobs and growth, only to find out that the benefits had been way oversold and the consequences had been severely underestimated.

“When it comes to debating economic policies we should consider whether they will grow middle class wages, create new jobs and bolster our manufacturing sector. Trade Promotion Authority legislation does none of these things.”

According to Casey, by most measures, Japan, which would be part of the “Trans-Pacific Partnership” trade agreement, is the second-largest currency manipulator in the world.

“The value of the yen relative to the dollar is now lower than at any time in the past eight years and has fallen about 50 percent in the past three years alone,” he wrote. “This hurts U.S. exports and American jobs. Nationwide, the trade deficit with Japan displaced about 896,600 jobs. Pennsylvania has lost more than 40,000 jobs to this trade deficit.”

He added that the Keystone State ranked seventh in terms of net jobs displaced by the trade deficit with Japan.

According to a chart accompanying his news release, of the 40,000 jobs lost, 2,800 were in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and another 1,900 in the Pittsburgh area.

Perhaps even more compelling is the comparison of hourly wages in the 12 countries that would be in the proposed Pacific Rim trade pact.

The list is topped by Australia, which has an hourly minimum wage of $10.95, followed by New Zealand with $9.40. Canada is third at $7.74, then the United States ($7.25) and Japan ($6.03).

The scale then drops precipitously with Chile at $2.92, Malaysia, $2.42, Mexico 89 cents and Vietnam, 71 cents. The two remaining countries, Brunei and Singapore, have no legal minimum wage.

Casey’s comments on the “fast track” authority were bookended by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who told the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday the fast track bill would rob Congress of a meaningful role in shaping trade deals.

“The idea that fast track lets Congress set the standards and goals for the TPP is an absolute fiction,” Trumka said in reference to the pending 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Trumka said the Pacific-rim deal “has been under negotiation for more than five years and is essentially complete. Congress cannot set meaningful negotiating objectives in a fast track bill if the administration has already negotiated most of the key provisions.”

U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donahue countered that fast-track authority is crucial to ratifying deals that would help U.S. producers reach big foreign markets.

Without fast track, Donahue said, the United States “is relegated to the sidelines as other nations negotiate trade agreements without us – putting American workers, farmers and companies at a competitive disadvantage.”

On Thursday, Leo Garard, international president of the United Steelworkers, called on American working families to urge their senators and all members of Congress to join the USW in rejecting the fast track legislation.

Most congressional Democrats oppose fast track, and the Obama administration is trying to muster as much support as possible.

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