Free Trade and Jobs

Floor Speech

Mr. DOLD. Mr. Speaker, just last week I had the opportunity to host a manufacturing roundtable to hear firsthand from job creators in the 10th District of Illinois. These business leaders spoke about the challenges that they are facing and how decisions made right here in Washington, D.C. impact their ability to create jobs and put Illinois back to work.

The entrepreneurs I met with expressed their concern with the uncertainty in the marketplace and spoke about the difficulties they face when competing in a global marketplace. From trade to excessive regulations, it is clear that much work needs to be done right here in Washington, D.C.

Despite the problems that our country and businesses face, I am optimistic about the future. Just yesterday, the President sent long-anticipated trade agreements to Congress for approval.

We heard the President talk about his Jobs Act; and while there may be some disagreement about the Jobs Act, certainly I think that there are areas where we can agree, and I think that we ought to move those aspects forward. Certainly when we talk about the trade agreements, I would argue that's one of the areas that has broad bipartisan support, and we should move it forward for the American public.

We have 650 manufacturers in Illinois' 10th Congressional District representing 80,000 jobs. Fifty thousand of those jobs rely upon exports, and I would argue that our ability to open and expand markets will create that demand.

Seventy-three percent of the world's purchasing power is outside of the United States. Ninety-five percent of the consumers are outside of the United States' borders. We want to make sure that we have an agreement, an arrangement where we can knock down these barriers where we can allow the American worker to compete on a level playing field.

If we are able to do that, the American worker will win. We know that for every billion dollars that we increase in trade, we create 6,250 jobs right here at home.

We know that it would add, just with South Korea alone, would add $10 billion to our GDP. This is a step, certainly, in the right direction.

In Illinois, manufacturing accounts for 93 percent of our exports, and these exports support 25 percent of the manufacturing jobs in our State, a State that's lost 750,000 manufacturing jobs over the last decade.

Small businesses are also a big part of those exports. By ratifying the pending trade agreements, we are empowering manufacturers, small business owners, and entrepreneurs. This is exactly the type of bipartisan action we need to be taking in these tough economic times.

While there is much more work that needs to be done, we should be encouraged by the movement on the trade agreements and use this as a stepping stone to continue working together and finding common ground. When we come together for the American public, we can create an economic certainty that allows small business owners all across the land to be able to forecast, have some more certainty, invest in their business and create jobs.

There are 29 million small businesses in our Nation. If we can create an environment here in Washington, D.C. where half of those businesses can create one job, think about where we would be then.

I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come together to pass these pending trade agreements. Put the American worker first, and let's get America back to work.

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