Timothy Roemer: “there are some in this Chamber who will not vote for any kind of trade agreement, and there are others that will vote…”

“there are some in this Chamber who will not vote for any kind of trade agreement, and there are others that will vote for every kind of trade agreement, thinking it is a panacea. As a New Democrat, I believe in incorporating new ideas into our trade agreements, especially to help our workers. When I voted for the African Trade Agreement, I heard we would help workers. When I voted for the Caribbean Basin initiative, I heard, we will not forget about the workers. When I voted for the China agreement I heard, once again, we will eventually get to the workers. Well, it is time now to help American workers and their families. In the Tokyo Round we introduced tariff levels as a new idea. In the Uruguay Round we introduced intellectual property as a new idea. In the Doha rounds we introduced antitrust laws as a new idea, and now we should have the new idea of saying there should be a floor of protecting against child labor, not mandating a minimum wage, but saying, child labor is wrong and it is not going to be in future trade agreements between the United States and other countries. Defeat this bill.”