Statement by Congressman Dan Kildee on President Obama's Push for Trans-Pacific Partnership in State of the Union Address

Statement

"While I agree with the President on many of his proposals, I disagree with him when it comes to fast-tracking new so-called "fair trade" deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership he pushed for in tonight's speech. Like the last "free trade' deal, TPP could mean the loss of thousands of manufacturing and automotive jobs.

"My hometown of Flint, Michigan, knows all too well the damaging effect that these trade deals have on our economy. One only has to look back to the last trade deal to see that these bad deals don't help the American worker -- instead they do the opposite, hurting our country's competitiveness and contributing to a race to the bottom when it comes to wages and exports.

"At one point, Flint had over 79,000 workers in the manufacturing and automotive industry and we were told that NAFTA-style trade deals would help these industries. Today, there are fewer than 10,000 manufacturing and automotive workers in Flint. With these trade agreements, we saw thousands of good-paying American jobs shipped away. I can't let that happen again while I'm serving in Congress.

"Even worse, the President's administration is currently negotiating this new deal entirely in secret. Congress so far has been left out of the negotiating process, even though the President will be asking Congress to vote in favor of this fast-tracked deal. How are we supposed to vote on a new trade deal when we don't even know what's in it? Nothing I've seen so far leads me to believe this new TPP deal is any different from NAFTA.

"Secret trade policies like TPP are not the right course for Michigan and I will continue to oppose them being fast-tracked. My district was sold a bill of goods the last time around and is still dealing with the effect NAFTA had on our local economy. TPP would double down on these bad policies and I simply can't support that happening."

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