Slaughter On Kirk Speech: “We’ve heard all this before and nothing is done for workers.”

Washington, DC – Rep. Louise Slaughter, Chair of the House Rules Committee, today issued the following statement in response to Rep. Ron Kirk’s speech in Pittsburgh on trade enforcement.

“A strong trade enforcement policy is the best way to immediately help level the playing field for American workers and manufacturers,” Slaughter said. “But for too many years, we’ve done nothing for them. Ambassador Kirk’s words sound fine but we’ve heard all of this before and nothing is ever done for workers. Look what happened to Buffalo Color, which used to make indigo dye. Despite the fact that the International Trade Commission unanimously ruled that Buffalo Color was a victim of Chinese dumping, and despite repeated calls for the administration to adequately enforce this ruling, the company was forced out of business due to inaction from our government. They always say they will step up enforcement and it simply gets left behind. Sad to say the 14 trade agreements that the United States has entered into with other countries since 2001 have not been very good for too many Americans. We need a thoughtful round of new agreements that ensure that workers have protections, that environmental and human rights are not ignored and that barriers to our own exports do not kill our homegrown products.”

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