Senate Proceeding on May 19th, 2011 :: 4:41:55 to 4:50:15
Total video length: 8 hours 40 minutes Stream Tools: Stream Overview | Edit Time

Note: MetaVid video transcripts may contain inaccuracies, help us build a more perfect archive

Views:99 Duration: 0:08:20 Discussion

Previous speech:

Next speech:

4:41:53 to 4:42:15( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. brown: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from owe/. mr. brown: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. objection. mr. brown: thank you, mr. president. i appreciated the words from the junior senator from nebraska about these trade agreements and

4:41:55 to 4:50:15( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Sherrod Brown

4:42:16 to 4:42:37( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: i take him at face vasm i know that he means wsm i know that h believes that these trade agreements help the am people. i also know that every time there is a major trade agreement in front of this congress, the presiding officer's first one, my first one -- something called the north american free trade agreement. they promised and promised and promised saying there would be

4:42:38 to 4:42:59( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: all kinds of creation of jobs, all -- our trade surplus would grow, it would mean not just more jobs but better-paying jobs. well, it didn't quite work out that way with nafta. then they did the same kind of promise and overpromise with pntr, permanent normal trade relations with china. we went from -- we had a small -- with mexico and with nafta,

4:43:00 to 4:43:21( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: we had a trade surplus with mexico, not too many years before nafta was signed and it turned into a multimillion-dollar trade deficit. with china we had a small trade deficit. a deficit in trade simply means that we buy more from that country than we to that country. president bush the first said

4:43:22 to 4:43:42( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: that a billion dollar trade deficit or surplus turns into 13,000 or 19,000 jobs. the spoints that if you are saling a lot more than you're buying, it's going to create jbs in our country. if you're buying a lot more than you're selling, you're going to

4:43:43 to 4:44:03( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: lose manufacturing jobs. well, when we to literally hundreds of billions of dollars of trade deficit with china after pntr. all you got to do is look at going -- go into li any store in the country and see the number of products that are made in comien that used to be canadian vermont or ohio or michigan or pennsylvania or miss moirs wherever.

4:44:04 to 4:44:25( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: so, mr. president, we know that these every time they come to the floor, the promises, going to create jobs for americans. they did it with nafta, they did it with pntr wit with china. now they're saying the same thing with south korea and panama and colombia. well, it just doesn't ever --

4:44:26 to 4:44:47( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: maybe the mai theory is good. i don't think it is. but may maybe the theory is it doesn't seem to work out that way. i urge my clerks listen to what supporters of these trade agreements say. but you know trust but verify. and really ask the tough questions about why is this going to create more jobs in we know the cost of south korea

4:44:48 to 4:45:09( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: trade agreements liltly $7 billion. this is going to cost us a lot of money. they're not paying for these fiscal conservatives don't want to take away the subdispris the oil industry. they're notin noting about to pay for this -- they're not is going to pay for this trade agreement. we know what these lost jobs, we know what it means to mansfield, owe.

4:45:10 to 4:45:31( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: we know what it means to sandusky and chillicothe and dayton and cleevmentd proud cities with -- proud cities with a proud middle class that have receive these manufacturing jobs so often go straight to mexico, go straight to china, go straight to cou after we sign these trade agreements or after we sign -- after we change these rules

4:45:32 to 4:45:52( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: about -- about trade. so at a minimum, mr. president, i've asked the president of the united states by letter about 35 or so senators have signed this letter, we'll release this letter -- we'll send the letter to the president tomorrow -- underscoring the president's commitment, the trade rep's -- the united states trade

4:45:53 to 4:46:13( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: representative, ambassador kirk, and the president's economic advisor they will not send these trade agreements to the congress until the president's had an opportunity to sign trade adjustment assistance. trade adjustment assistance your job because of a trade

4:46:14 to 4:46:34( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: agreement that you at eligible for assistance for job retraining. to me, the problem is the trade agreements and that's costing us jobs. but at a minimum, in the great majority of democratic senators here understand with the president that we don't pass these trade agreements without helping these workers that are going to lose their jobs.

4:46:35 to 4:46:57( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: to me it's a little bit of a counterintuitive, well, why pass these trade agreements at all if we expect job there is to come from them but the other side will argue that jobs will increase overall even though they always promise that and it doesn't steam work that way. but everybody -- doesn't seem to work that way. but everybody acknowledges some people are going to lose jobs as we do these tra that's some sort of circular thinking that i don't

4:46:58 to 4:47:19( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: particularly buy. but as a minimum, i said, because so often -- when these trade agreements pass, conservative republican sort of pro-corporate interest senators will say, well, we want to take care of at the just don't get around to taking care of the workers. that's why we've got to do trade adjustment assistance first, why we need to begin these trade rules.

4:47:20 to 4:47:40( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: we saw in ohio alone in 2000 -- in the last three or four years because we enforced some trade rules because the president of the united states, president obama, and the mercy department and the international trade commission stood up and enforced trade rules on china's -- on gaming the system, on tires, on oil country tubular steel and

4:47:41 to 4:48:02( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: less so bought coated paper, we've seen jobs in the united states come b leveling the playing field so they can't game the system as much. that's why it's important that we take care of workers before these trade agreements come to the congress, then we'll debate the trade i hope we can defeat them. i think it's going to be hard. and we make sure we do the enforcement of these trade rules that a

4:48:03 to 4:48:23( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: that are -- that are now in existence, that are now part of the law before we -- and get that in place and strengthen that before we pass these bills, these trade agreements. so, mr. president, it's a pretty simple thing to do but it's important. and one of the trade agreements that the senator from nebraska mentioned, he was talking about the colombia trade agreement. i could talk on each of the three and -- and to the point of

4:48:24 to 4:48:44( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: perhaps boring some of my colleagues but on the one trade agreement that's particularly egregious with the country of colombia, just last year, 50 trade unionists, 50 labor activists in clom yarp murdered. -- in colombia were murdered. 50 murders. and they're saying, the supporters of these trade agreement says yeah, but they're getting better in colombia, and

4:48:45 to 4:49:05( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: fewer trade union activists are getting murdered so really it's getting better. well, not that long ago, a labor rights lawyer was shot, did not die, is surviving, was injured badly. but it's just something a bit untoward about saying to this country, because you're getting better and fewer trade unionists are getting murdered that we

4:49:06 to 4:49:26( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: ought to -- we ought to give them free trade, we ought to do a free trade agreement. i hope we'll stand back. if we really care about justice, if we really care about human rights, if we really care about the values that we embody of democracy and fair play, we shouldn't be passing a trade agreement with a country that -- where the labor environment is such that these labor union

4:49:27 to 4:49:48( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: activists who believe in collective bargaing and free associations -- collective bargaining like the consensus we have in this country around collective bargaing, at least we did until some radicals in ohio and wisconsin tried to write legislation and have passed legislation that unwinds some of that, that's helped create a middle class. but if we believe in collective bargaining, we believe in free

4:49:49 to 4:50:09( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: association, we believe in the right of a people to voluntarily organize and then bargain collectively, we shouldn't be passing a trade agreement with the hazard -- with a country that has an environment where so many labor activists have been mu mr. president, i want to remind my colleagues again how important these trade adjustment assistance is before we pass these trade agreements.

4:50:10 to 4:50:16( Edit History Discussion )

Sherrod Brown: mr. president, i yield the floor.