Washington DC- U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, released a statement following Senate passage of Trade Promotion Authority.
“With passage of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation, the Senate has put the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on a fast track, while workers’ wages remain on a very slow track. My top priority is strengthening the middle class by growing wages. In the decade after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was passed, 525,094 workers were certified as displaced, and a 2014 study by The Review of Economics and Statistics found that job displacement due to trade led to real wage losses of 12-17% from 1984 through 2002. TPP is four times the size of NAFTA, and most of the countries in TPP have very low wages – many below $3 per hour. Bad trade deals have a direct and substantial impact on wages. One expert recently wrote, ‘Nothing being considered by Congress right now would ensure that the TPP meets the goal of promoting domestic production and job creation.’ Workers in Pennsylvania can out-compete any worker in the world if the playing field, as it relates to wages, labor, and the environment, is level. TPA and TPP push us in the wrong direction.”
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