Dan Kildee: “All trade agreements suffer from the same fundamental flaw: They are not self-enforcing. Trade agreements depend upon…”

“All trade agreements suffer from the same fundamental flaw: They are not self-enforcing. Trade agreements depend upon vigorous enforcement, which requires official complaints be made when violations occur. None of the six Presidents with whom I have served here in the Congress have shown any eagerness to file complaints when agreements are violated. I certainly have no faith in President Bush to show any enthusiasm to enforce this agreement. Congress should not hand this administration yet another trade agreement because past agreements have been more efficient at exporting jobs than goods and services. My city of Flint, Michigan, has dropped in population from 190,000 to 118,000. Much of this loss is due to trade agreements. If you want to put the human face on trade, come and look at the sad faces in Flint, Michigan. Mr. Speaker, shortly after NAFTA was passed, workers at Delphi in Flint were ordered to package up manufacturing machinery for transport to Mexico. They were actually exporting their jobs to another country in packing crates. And to add insult to injury, the following year, the U.S. Department of Commerce was reporting the increase of exports to Mexico, and they included that machinery from Flint, Michigan. They included that exportation of jobs as progress. This was the United States Department of Commerce. This was not the Mexican Department of Commerce bragging how jobs had been exported to Mexico.”