Pointing to a report released Friday showing the national unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent, Florida Republican Congressman Dennis Ross came out swinging at the White House, calling for House Republicans to play hardball with the Obama administration to get free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.
Ross, a freshman member of Congress who chairs the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and Labor Policy Oversight Subcommittee, sent a letter to U.S. Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., demanding Republicans pull the plug on the Trade Adjustment Assistance program (TAA), which provides benefits for American workers who have lost their jobs due to international trade agreements. The White House will not submit the three free-trade agreements to Congress unless they vote to extend TAA.
According to the American Association of Port Authorities, cargo movement accounts for 13 million U.S. jobs and international trade accounts for over 25 percent of our GDP, said Ross on Friday. In addition, each $1 billion in additional exports creates roughly 15,000 jobs for Americans. The U.S. International Trade Commission estimates that the three pending trade agreements would increase U.S. exports by at least $13 billion and create more than 200,000 American jobs. In the Port of Tampa which is a stones throw from my district, trade with Panama and Colombia alone accounts for almost 2.5 million tons of cargo. Additional trade due to these agreements will not only bring trade jobs to Tampa, but will improve the bottom line for businesses and ports across the country.
Ross added some harsh words about the TAA.
It is near impossible to determine whether someone lost their job due to free trade, said Ross. I firmly believe more jobs in America are lost due to the current imbalance of trade that places American products and American workers at a disadvantage, than are lost to free trade. A government handout, borrowed from China, as a bone to Big Labor, wont create a single job and is a needless distraction. Perhaps the president can explain to 200,000 Americans, who would have jobs due to these agreements, why he is preventing their employment. For me, I challenge the president to tell Floridas farmers, bio-fuel producers, and ranchers why he wants to prevent them from growing American jobs.
In the letter his office is circulating, Ross wrote: Recent reports indicate that the White House will not submit to Congress pending trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea or Panama for approval until a deal with Congress to renew expanded trade adjustment assistance benefits (TAA) is set in place. We strongly urge you not to participate in -- or accept -- any such deal that exchanges passage of the free-trade agreements (FTAs) or a renewal of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) for TAA. So far, 11 other members of Congress have signed it.
TAA is undoubtedly -- and deliberately designed as -- a federal wealth-redistribution program that has no business existing in a free society, added Ross. The underlying assumption inherent to TAA is that increased trade is bad and needs to be offset by yet another pseudo-compassionate federal program paid for by taxpayers at large. It is time that we fully rebuff such thinking and forge ahead with a robust trade agenda that removes barriers wherever possible, on the notion that more and freer trade benefits all parties involved -- consumers, workers, business owners, inventors, and so on.
"Just as we do not agree with the reasoning that the federal government must spend more money to keep from going bankrupt, we reject any call to embrace socialism in order to promote capitalism, wrote Ross in closing. We look forward to working with you to promote free enterprise and enact the Colombia, South Korea and Panama free-trade agreements this Congress.
Rosss letter garnered some support from conservative organizations, including Heritage Action and the Club for Growth. Heritage Action sent out notices to its supporters urging them to contact their congressmen and have them sign on to Rosss letter.
The Club for Growth is opposed to the Obama administration's plan to not submit the three pending free-trade agreements with Korea, Colombia and Panama for approval until Congress renews the expanded Trade Adjustment Assistance program (TAA), said Andy Roth from that organization. We strongly urge all members to support the letter.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (850) 727-0859 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
