May 20, 2015

US Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) Wants Benefits to Americans In Trade Agreements




[From article]
“It is time to begin a vigorous analysis of our conduct of trade,” Sessions said. “Do our policies and TPP concede too much to our mercantilist competitor allies?”
According to the Alabama lawmaker, there has not been enough consideration of the impact of trade agreements on the American worker and American incomes — so long as consumer prices decline with the deals.
“At bottom, we must ask whether or not our aggressive trading partners, using a mercantilist philosophy, may be gaining unfair advantage. These countries—good nations, good allies—are not religious about free trade,” Sessions said. “In general, while they assert their desire is for expanded free trade, their actual policies seek fewer U.S. exports to them using non-tariff as well as tariff barriers. Our trade competitors use currency manipulation, subsidies, and other actions to expand their exports to us. Their goal is, naturally, to seek full employment in their countries while exporting their unemployment to the United States.”
[. . .]
“This refusal by many to acknowledge the mercantilist policies of our trading competitors has gone, it seems to me, from promoting healthy trading relationships to an ideology, even to the nature of a religion,” he said.
Sessions pointed out that while he too is in favor of less expensive products and has voted for trade agreements in the past, the trade deal before Congress is unsettling to him.
[. . .]
Overall, Sessions concluded trade agreements should benefit the American people.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/19/sen-sessions-more-skepticism-of-trade-pacts-needed-should-not-lose-one-job-to-trade-deal/

SEN. SESSIONS: MORE SKEPTICISM OF TRADE PACTS NEEDED, SHOULD NOT LOSE ONE JOB TO TRADE DEAL
by CAROLINE MAY
19 May 2015

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