The Last Thing American Workers and Our Economy Need

On Monday, President Obama submitted three free trade agreements to Congress based on the flawed North-American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) model that has been devastating to our economy, American workers and to labor and environmental standards. 

Hundreds of thousands of American jobs have been displaced and outsourced as a result of our pursuit of trade policies which are adverse to the economic interests of the American people. 

My home State of Ohio is one of the top-10 states posting the biggest job losses since the passage of NAFTA. 

Unfortunately, the proposed free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama do nothing to address the significant flaws in the free trade model that prioritize the rights of multinational companies over the rights of workers and the American economy. 

The Korea-U.S. and U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreements are expected to increase our trade deficit by over $16 billion and result in the displacement or loss of over 200,000 jobs. 

This is on top of the over 2 million American jobs that have been displaced or eliminated over the past ten years as a result of our increased trade deficit with China.

The last thing American workers and our economy needs is more NAFTA-style free trade agreements.