Marcy Kaptur: “How many millions more jobs have to be outsourced before Washington wakes up? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week…”

“How many millions more jobs have to be outsourced before Washington wakes up? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week released a report claiming that U.S. trade agreements have support 5.4 million jobs. More than 90 percent of the jobs, according to the Chamber, can be attributed to NAFTA and our NAFTA trading partners, Mexico and Canada. Are we talking about the same country in the same continent? In the United States I know and the district I return to every weekend, the battering effects of NAFTA and NAFTA-like trade agreements are still being felt: lost jobs, shuttered factories, and beleaguered communities. I can't help but wonder if the Chamber of Commerce is some sort of cruel joke: 5.4 million jobs? No way. Try 1 million jobs lost due to NAFTA. Try 2 million manufacturing jobs lost because of all of the off-shoring that has gone on in this country in the last quarter century. Or how about 12,000 to 20,000 service-sector jobs lost every month, many of which have simply been outsourced overseas. In Ohio, employment just in the manufacturing sector has declined by a third. Companies like Silgan Holdings, Delphi, Georgia Pacific, General Motors, Dixon Ticonderoga, Champion Spark Plug, all have moved to Mexico.”