Rogers to House Leadership: Africa, Haiti Bill Bad for Jobs, Textiles

Rogers to House Leadership: Africa, Haiti Bill Bad for Jobs, Textiles

Congressman Mike Rogers said today he was "cautiously optimistic" a controversial trade bill with various African nations and Haiti will not be considered in the House in the near future, saying the legislation would further harm the Third District's struggling textile industry and give countries like China another unfair advantage for increasing exports duty-free to the United States.

"Congress should be working to level the playing field, and making sure foreign countries like China play by the rules," Rogers said. "This bill, like the recently-passed Bahrain Free Trade Agreement, could give foreign countries yet another way to unfairly increase their exports to the United States.

"This is a bad bill for Alabama workers, and I'm pleased there seems to be momentum building against its consideration," he added.

Earlier today, Rogers signed a letter to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (IL) and Majority Leader John Boehner (OH) asking for H.R. 6142, the Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act of 2006, to be pulled from consideration. Late this afternoon, Rogers said his office received word the bill would not be considered before Congress recesses later this week. Rogers said he was encouraged by that news.

Rogers explained the pact includes harmful Trade Preference Levels (TPLs) and a possible "back door" for importing increased numbers of cheaply made foreign goods. The letter, which

Rogers signed along with a bi-partisan group of representatives, says, "H.R. 6142 dramatically alters the ‘rules of the game' by allowing apparel assembled in Haiti and Africa from Chinese fabrics with Chinese yarns duty-free access to the U.S. This will be devastating to our domestic textile industry and places at risk the almost 700,000 textile and apparel jobs that it provides in the United States."

http://www.house.gov/list/press/al03_rogers/HOPE.html