Nancy L. Johnson: “One of the hardest things today and all of us feel it in every one of our districts, it is really hard to see plants…”

“One of the hardest things today and all of us feel it in every one of our districts, it is really hard to see plants that really are not producing a top quality good gradually have to lay people off and go under. But that has nothing to do with negotiating authority. It has to do with the fact that consumers today demand very high-quality products at a reasonable cost and they have a choice of products from all over the world. For America to be competitive and American companies to be successful, they have to be the best and the lowest cost in their own local market, around the Nation and across the seas. The exciting thing is that they have risen to this challenge. It took years to do it but I can tell the gentleman, I represent the best workers in the world. They do top quality work individually, they work together well as a team, they day in and day out, you walk into any factory in my district and they can tell you stories about how the latest move that some group in that factory has made to identify by thinking, by working together, to identify a way to cut costs, improve quality, improve productivity together, same men and women, same hours, same equipment, thinking smart, working as a team, and doing a far better job than we used to do. It is truly exciting and we are frankly in so many areas absolutely the best. So we are competitive. One of the things that makes me saddest in this whole trade debate is the idea that somehow trade policy sends jobs abroad.”