Say no to TPA

An article appeared recently in the Spokesman urging Congress to pass the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), so we can enter into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the European Union.

This would be worse for America than the NAFTA trade agreement of 1993. NAFTA was sold to us on the same promises of more trade and jobs. The reality is that in 1993 we had a 1.66 billion trade surplus with Mexico and since 2010 we have been running 60 billion annual defecits because Chrysler, Ford, GM and other companies have transferred production plants to Mexico. In 1993 our annual trade defecit with Canada was 10.7 billion. By 2005 it had risen to 78.4 billion.

The federal government’s own program known as Trade Adjustment Assistance had by 2010 certified over 720,000 jobs lost in America due to NAFTA. The TPP has onlyfive sections out of 29 that deal with trade. The other 24 deal with global rules and regulations from climate change to international courts that destroy our nation’s sovereignty and have nothing to do with selling wheat and potatoes.

To help save our jobs and American sovereignty, urge Senators Crapo and Risch to vote NO on TPA. Both senators have supported TPA in the past, and have indicated they will again, because they contend that it is good for business and will create more jobs. The problem is that it will be Chinese business and Chinese slave labor jobs.

Robert Vickaryous

Bonners Ferry