Sherrod Brown: “H.R. 4103 represents another lost opportunity in terms of international trade, in terms of our dealings with Africa. We…”

“H.R. 4103 represents another lost opportunity in terms of international trade, in terms of our dealings with Africa. We have failed Africa in this body on aid issues, we have failed Africa in this body on trade issues. This lost opportunity of H.R. 4103 is embodied in the fact that we could have lifted up standards for African workers and for American workers and for our trade agreements and trade relations. But what is embodied in H.R. 4103 runs through our entire trade policy. The gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Jackson) talked about loss of sovereignty in the developing world; that we have through various kinds of programs for all kinds of trade adjustments, all kinds of other issues, what has run through our programs is loss of sovereignty, the push to privatization in these countries. We have lost opportunity in H.R. 4103 to allow and encourage and push in allowing unionization, allowing the ability to bargain collectively and to organize in the developing world. Instead, we are, as the gentleman said, engaging in a corporate race to the bottom.”