Plus: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) says China trade has been “a catastrophe” for manufacturing.
American workers need a better deal.
A few weeks ago, Alliance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul wrote to the White House to express his concerns with the ‘Phase 1” trade agreement between the United States and China, which President Trump signed on Jan. 15.
Paul called for an immediate resumption of negotiations to address the fundamental issues driving lopsided trade with China, including China’s state-owned enterprises, massive subsidies, out-of-control industrial overcapacity, and lax labor and environmental standards.
Now 3,000 people (and counting!) are joining Paul in calling for a tougher “Phase 2” deal with China, urging both Trump and their Members of Congress to demand that China finally address its unfair trade practices – and be willing to get tough if China doesn’t budge.
You can join them: Click here to demand a better China trade deal!
Meanwhile, Sen. Marco Rubio weighed in on the Economic Policy Institute report released on Thursday that found 3.7 million U.S. jobs have been lost to China since 2001. The Florida Republican is among those on Capitol Hill who have been critical of China, and expressed his concerns about the Phase 1 deal in a recent op-ed in The New York Times.
Responding to EPI’s latest findings, Rubio told AAM in a statement on Monday that unfair trade with China “has been a catastrophe for the United States and our manufacturing industry, robbing millions of Americans of dignified work.”
Here’s Rubio’s entire statement:
“It was naïve to believe that China’s controversial admission into the WTO would cause the Communist Party to become a responsible stakeholder. Instead, we now know that ‘normalizing’ trade relations with Beijing has been a catastrophe for the United States and our manufacturing industry, robbing millions of Americans of dignified work. Tantalized by promises of cheap production in China, politicians and corporations offshored entire supply chains and millions of American jobs with them. The consequences are no accident, but instead enriched the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party as it seeks to crush dissent at home and supplant America abroad. Addressing the U.S.-China relationship is the defining geopolitical issue of this century, and finding a peaceful and workable path forward for our two nations will require us to increase our national strength. That is why I am wholly committed to furthering our national development through 21st-century American industrial policy compatible with and complementary to our free market system. The stakes could not be higher because the outcome will define the 21st century.”
Here at AAM headquarters, we believe that President Trump deserves credit for making China a top priority. He was willing to get tough in order to bring Chinese officials to the table to talk about trade.
But the job isn’t done.
The United States needs a sustained, bipartisan commitment from our leaders to work toward a deal that takes on the issues at the heart of this trade imbalance, and a willingness to get tough if China refuses to budge.