Trade

Congressman DeFazio has been a leader in fighting "free" trade agreements that have led to massive job loss, the withering of the U.S. manufacturing base, soaring trade deficits, and the erosion of U.S. sovereignty, among other problems. He has voted against every free trade agreement, was a lead opponent of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), fought against President Obama’s disastrous Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), worked to improve the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA). 

As someone who has spent their entire career fighting on behalf of the American worker, Congressman DeFazio knows Congress can and must do more to address the very real frustrations of Americans whose lives have been devastated  by trade policies that put corporate profits over working people. He will always fight to ensure there is a level playing field for American workers. 

Leading the Opposition to Free Trade Agreements (FTA) 

World Trade Organization (WTO) 

Congressman DeFazio was a strong opponent of the WTO and opposed the U.S. joining the WTO. 

Since its establishment in 1995, but even more so since China joined in 2001, the WTO’s ban on Buy American and other domestic procurement preferences, its protections for foreign investors, and its lack of rules against currency manipulations  and other forms of unfair trade practices have promoted the outsourcing of American production capacity and decimated well-paying  jobs. 

Since the WTO’s creation, the U.S. has lost roughly five million manufacturing jobs, sixty thousand U.S. factories have shuttered, and the U.S. goods and services trade deficit has exploded.  

That’s why Congressman DeFazio has introduced legislation to withdraw the U.S. from the WTO. Despite House leadership blocking his efforts, Congressman DeFazio is committed to robust debate over the WTO’s impact on U.S. jobs.  
 

NAFTA and USMCA 

Congressman DeFazio voted against NAFTA. Economic advisers to President Clinton predicted that if the U.S. passed NAFTA, the U.S. would enjoy trade surpluses between $9-$12 billion and create thousands of new jobs. DeFazio knew that would not happen. The reality  was the loss of an estimated one million family-wage jobs in the U.S. 

Congressman DeFazio supported President Trump’s promise to deliver a dramatically improved NAFTA or withdraw from the agreement altogether. However, the original version of the USMCA that the Trump administration delivered to Congress was nothing more than a continuation of NAFTA’s same failed policies.  

After months of extensive negotiations between House Democrats and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), important improvements were made to the USMCA on a number of issues, including improvements Congressman DeFazio helped secure.

While the USMCA is an improvement from NAFTA, DeFazio voted against the USMCA because the agreement failed working Americans who have been left behind by NAFTA’s failed policies.  Americans need a truly transformative deal that will stop the hemorrhaging of U.S. jobs and support American workers while safeguarding the environment and protecting consumers. Despite his opposition, the USMCA is now in effect, and DeFazio will work to sure the terms of the agreement are fully enforced and that any and all flaws are appropriately addressed should the USMCA be renegotiated.

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) 

DeFazio supported President Trump’s withdrawal from the TTP. If enacted, it would have led to massive U.S. job losses, undermined U.S. sovereignty, and rewarded countries that have lax environmental, food safety, and labor laws. In fact, the ultimate goal of this agreement was to get China to join. An FTA with China would spell the end of our domestic manufacturing sector. 
Congressman DeFazio will continue to fight for fair trade policies that benefit American workers, protects consumers and the environment, and increases U.S. GDP. 

Standing Up to Chinese Trade Abuses

DeFazio has a long history of standing up to Chinese trade abuses. He ardently opposed China’s admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and fought against granting them most-favored-nation status, which they continually use to file arbitrary complaints against the U.S. when we attempt to enforce our own trade laws. 
 
For years, DeFazio has urged both Democratic and Republican administrations to hold the Chinese government accountable for its abusive and unfair practices, and year after year, Republican and Democratic administrations have shirked their responsibilities. China’s discriminatory trade and industrial policies and U.S. failure to confront these policies have led to millions of U.S. jobs lost, gutted communities across our nation, cost U.S. innovators billions each year, facilitated deplorable human rights conditions in China, and have helped finance China’s massive military build-up. 

DeFazio has long pushed for American leaders to effectively stand up to China in order to secure substantive, enforceable, and permanent structural reforms. This includes utilizing the full range of tools at our disposal to negotiate a comprehensive trade deal that goes beyond merely recalibrating the massive trade imbalance with China to create security for American jobs, our public health, and long-term economic prosperity. Any trade deal with China must address the predatory tactics at the heart of our trade issues, including the theft of U.S. intellectual property and trade secrets, the coercion of companies to engage in the transfer of technology, massive Chinese government subsidies to their emerging industries, flooding global markets with cheap imports, and more. 

Raw Log Export Ban 

Early in his congressional career, when Oregon was suffering from a recession, DeFazio proposed legislation, which was signed into law, to ban the export of raw logs from federal lands. The ban remains in place and has saved thousands of family-wage jobs. 

Chapter 19 

Included in the original NAFTA, Chapter 19 allows foreign tribunals to overrule U.S. trade protections against heavily subsidized foreign imports. This has hurt a number of U.S. industries, including the softwood lumber industry. Oregon is the largest producer of softwood lumber. 
DeFazio has long called for the elimination of this unconstitutional chapter and was disappointed that the Trump administration abandoned its original position to eliminate chapter 19 in the USMCA. 

Emergency Trade Deficit Commission Act 

DeFazio authored legislation, which became law in 1998, to establish an Emergency Commission to End the Trade Deficit. The law established a panel to examine the failures of U.S. trade policy and suggest policy changes. The Commission split on ideological lines and issued its final report in November 2000. 
Since then the trade deficit has swelled to record highs, as U.S. manufacturing has waned. DeFazio reintroduced the legislation and in July of 2010 it passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support. 

Mexican Trucks 

As the Chair of the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure, DeFazio has been the most outspoken member of Congress in opposition to the Administration’s Mexican truck program. DeFazio led multiple successful congressional efforts to block the pilot program across multiple administrations.  

Congressman DeFazio is proud to have secured provisions in the USMCA that will better enable the U.S. to safeguard our roads. The deal includes language that allows the United States to restrict domestic long-haul services by Mexican trucks in the event of material harm to U.S. trucking suppliers, operators, and drivers. This restriction provides teeth to protect the U.S. trucking industry from unfair trade practices by Mexican motor carriers, and provides for consideration of impacts on driver wages and working conditions, to avoid a race to the bottom in trucking.