Mark Pocan: “And medicine. Much less labor standards. We know in Vietnam the wage is 28 cents an hour. That is 4 percent of our…”

“And medicine. Much less labor standards. We know in Vietnam the wage is 28 cents an hour. That is 4 percent of our currently already low minimum wage. To think that somehow we can have fair trade with a country that has 28 cents as minimum wage, that the factories have violated safety requirements eight out of 10 times they have been inspected, that workers routinely fail to get the minimum 4 days a month of rest. {time} 1845 This is not a trade partner that you can have in a trade agreement that is going to at least raise the level for American workers. It can only lower the level. And another concern I know you and I have had, Representative DeLauro, has been on procurement and what exactly is in this agreement on procurement. I was an author, when I was in the State Legislature in Wisconsin, of Buy America laws, to make sure that our tax dollars went to goods that supported American workers. The very language that has been in these trade agreements could take away our ability to have Buy Local and Buy American laws, and we need to change that. So, again, thank you so much for your efforts on this. We are going to work with many other colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do what we can to defeat this fast track. Ms. DeLAURO.…”