Mike Michaud: “I am asking Members who are committed to a fair trade deal to vote against the Peru FTA. While I have been a Member of…”

“I am asking Members who are committed to a fair trade deal to vote against the Peru FTA. While I have been a Member of Congress for only 5 years, I have been a mill worker all my life. The mill I worked at in Maine shut down 3 days after I was sworn in as a Member of Congress. The culprit? Badly flawed trade deals. This lunch bucket sits proudly in my office. It symbolizes who I am, what I stand for. It also symbolizes what has been lost. Since the passage of NAFTA, our country has lost over 3 million jobs. When the vote on NAFTA happened, Members of Congress were promised NAFTA would raise the standard of living for all. They were sold a dream, but the dream is now a nightmare of millions of workers all across this country. The American people get it. Polling indicates that an overwhelming number of Americans, Republicans and Democrats, are concerned about exporting our jobs. They worry whether or not they will have a paycheck in the years to come. We have all seen the ugly face of trade agreements that don't live up to the promises. The debate here today is not whether Peru is a small country and the trade impact is small compared to China. The debate is when will we truly change the course of trade policy. If this was truly a good trade policy, I would be the first to support it.”