Bush rewarding DeWine for support, Brown says

From Columbus Dispatch:

Democratic Senate candidate and Rep. Sherrod Brown said President Bush’s appearance yesterday at a $1 million-plus fundraiser for GOP Sen. Mike DeWine was payback for De-Wine’s support of Bush’s "flawed policies."

The DeWine campaign noted in response that several prominent Senate Democrats were on the same page as DeWine on at least one of the issues Brown cited.

Brown, of Avon, singled out for criticism DeWine’s vote for a free-trade pact with Oman that the Senate approved last week by a 60-34 vote, calling it a danger to national security because it could allow foreign ownership of U.S. port security. It is similar to the Dubai ports deal that ultimately was canceled

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07/01/2006 / Permalink / 2006, Trade, (all tags)

Trading Away Our Security

From Huffington Post: 

by Sherrod Brown 

After the public outcry over the Dubai ports deal, you'd think Republicans in Washington would think twice before proposing another trade deal that could threaten our national and economic security.

Think again.

Yesterday, Senator Mike DeWine voted for a free trade agreement with Oman which then passed the Republican-controlled Senate.

A troubling provision in the agreement permits corporations from Oman and subsidiaries based there to operate U.S. ports.

If the U.S. passes port security laws after the deal takes effect, those companies could sue the U.S. government to override the laws. Any suits would be heard before international tribunals, whose chief mission is to promote their trade priorities, not safeguard our homeland.

I spoke out against the Oman deal on Lou Dobbs Tonight on Wednesday along with Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota.

Dorgan warned, "What could happen here is a circumstance where the United Arab Emirates simply buys a company in Oman, and all of a sudden they're managing America's docks and ports."

Click here to read the entire entry on Huffington Post.

06/30/2006 / Permalink / Blogging, Homeland Security, Trade, (all tags)

Mideast Trade Deal Could Undermine U.S. Security, Threaten Ohio Jobs

Dewine Silent Again On Ensuring Trade Deals Do Not Endanger Homeland
 
AMHERST-Just four months after the Dubai Ports World scandal, Republican incumbent Senator Mike DeWine is once again failing to stand up for the economic and national security of Ohio families on a Mideast trade deal.
 
The Senate is expected to begin debate this week on the U.S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement, which would allow international trade tribunals to override U.S. homeland security laws. The Bush administration was negotiating a similar agreement with the United Arab Emirates during the Dubai Ports World controversy. If that agreement had been completed, trade tribunals could have overruled the national security review that helped scuttle the ports deal.
 
The Oman agreement specifically authorizes Omani companies --or companies with subsidiaries in Oman -- to operate U.S. ports.  If the U.S. passes port security laws after the deal takes effect, those companies could sue the U.S. government to override the laws. Such lawsuits would be heard before international tribunals charged with trade promotion, not security.
 
"First, Mike DeWine refused to take a position on the Dubai ports deal. Then he voted against port security funding. And now he is remaining silent on the Oman deal," said Congressman Sherrod Brown (D-Lorain County). "Ohio has lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs in the last five years. Will Mike DeWine jeopardize our homeland security as well?"
 
Brown is the sponsor of the Trade-Related American National Security Enhancement and Accountability (TRANSEA) Act, which would protect Ohio by requiring a comprehensive national security review for all new trade agreements. The TRANSEA Act would also establish an independent Congressional commission to monitor the impact of trade policy on homeland security.
 
"We must not trade away our families' safety," Brown said. "Mike DeWine has supported one job-killing trade agreement after another, with no protections in place for our national security. With this Oman deal, he wants more of the same."
 
Brown is one of Congress' leading proponents of fair trade policy. Last year, he led the bipartisan fight in Congress against the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and in 1994 he stood up to a president of his own party in opposing NAFTA. Brown introduced legislation this month to protect Ohio jobs by banning the importation of products made in sweatshops.
 
DeWine supported NAFTA and voted for CAFTA.

06/28/2006 / Permalink / Economy, Homeland Security, Trade, (all tags)

Congressman pitches for trade policies

From Canton Repository:

Better trade policies might help solve the nation’s immigration policies, U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown suggested Monday during a campaign stop.

Brown, D-Lorain, stood at the corner of E. Maple and S. Main streets, across from the Hoover Co. headquarters, and promoted a bill aimed at limiting imports of products made in sweatshops or with prison laborers.

When Madeline Corvington, a retired teacher from Jackson Township, asked if Brown could do something to “tweak” NAFTA (the North American Fair Trade Agreement), the congressman said all U.S. trade agreements should be reviewed.

Taking American jobs to Mexico isn’t really helping either country, Brown said. There are more poor people in Mexico today than before NAFTA, he said, and that is a big reason for the growing number of Mexicans coming to the United States.

The national immigration problem won’t be solved until trade problems are solved, Brown said.

Brown is challenging two-term Republican Michael DeWine for the Senate seat.

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06/27/2006 / Permalink / China, Economy, Northeast Ohio, Trade, (all tags)

Brown: Time for a change

From Lima News:

LIMA -- U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown got to test out some homemade ice cream, meet with area residents and do a little bit of campaigning during a stop in Allen County on Saturday.

Brown, D-Elyria, is looking to unseat Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, this November. Brown said he's confident he can win if enough money rolls into his campaign to make up for the $20 million he said DeWine plans to spend.

"I wouldn't have run for this if I didn't think I had a reasonably good chance of winning. I'm going to win this race if we raise the money," Brown said.

Brown visited with about 40 people at an ice cream social at the home of Wes Runk on Saturday, watching as pies were auctioned off to benefit his campaign. Among those he met was Liesl Sondheimer, a 98-year-old Jewish survivor of Nazi Germany who said she's the county's oldest Democrat.

"I want to talk to her some more. Have you heard her story?" Brown said before learning that Sondheimer's story is well-known in the area.
Brown said he believes now is the time to switch to the Senate because more can be accomplished there. He wants to guide the country toward a new trade system, saying programs like the North American Free Trade Agreement simply haven't helped anyone.

"We need trade agreements that protect our communities that help to grow jobs in this country, and that means building worker standards, environmental standards, food safety standards into these agreements so they raise prosperity into those countries," Brown said. "If they stay poor, they're not buying anything from us."

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06/18/2006 / Permalink / Northwest Ohio, Trade, (all tags)

China Trade Surplus Shatters Record

DeWine-backed trade agreements costing Ohio jobs

AMHERST -- China announced yesterday that its trade surplus for the month of May reached $13 billion, breaking its own record and demonstrating the failure of trade policies backed by Ohio Republican incumbent Senator Mike DeWine.  

The United States' trade deficit with China reached $202 billion in 2005, and is expected to reach a new high this year. China's $13 billion May trade surplus represents a 44% increase from May, 2005.

A 2005 study commissioned by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission found that Ohio lost at least 42,600 job opportunities as a result of U.S.-China trade policies between 1997 and 2003.

"Multinational corporations are reaping billions of dollars in profit by exploiting Chinese workers - and pay-to-play politicians in Washington are only too happy to look the other way," said Congressman Sherrod Brown (D-Lorain County), who is running for U.S. Senate. "The policies of Senator DeWine have failed Ohio families. We need a new direction."

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06/13/2006 / Permalink / China, Jobs, Trade, (all tags)

Congress must act to reverse loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs

From Duluth News Tribune:

OP-ED

Is U.S. manufacturing in a serious state of decline?

Yes: Congress must act to reverse loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs

Amy F. Isaacs

Manufacturing jobs and the economic strength they represent have been the heart and soul of the United States throughout history. By providing solid wages and benefits, a stable tax base and a boost into the middle class for millions of families, manufacturers have defined the American Dream.

Sadly, that dream appears to be dying as good manufacturing jobs continue to disappear. About 5 million have been lost over the past 30 years, with 3.5 million of those coming rapidly since 1998, and 2.9 million since 2001 alone.

These jobs -- when they are replaced -- are replaced by jobs providing lower wages and fewer, if any, benefits.

...Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has offered legislation that promotes fair trade and addresses many of these concerns and deserves to be enacted and signed into law. Existing and proposed tax provisions that foster the off-shoring of jobs should be reversed and opposed. These damaging provisions should be replaced by incentives for manufacturers that strengthen and create domestic jobs. Programs should be adopted to help workers cope with health-care and retirement costs. Corporate tax evaders should be penalized and denied government contract work.

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05/21/2006 / Permalink / Economy, Trade, (all tags)

Brown hopes voters buy trade issue

From Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Ask U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown his opinion about the raging debate over illegal immigration, and the response comes fast and firm: America won't solve its immigration problem, he says, until it solves its trade problem.

Ask Brown how he would fix Ohio's economy, and the answer is similar: One of the first things he would do is overhaul U.S. trade policies.

For more than a decade, the rumpled Avon Democrat has been preaching about the dangers of unfettered free trade to anyone who would listen. In his first year in Congress, he fought hard against the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada. Last summer, he led the harrowingly close fight in the House against a Caribbean free-trade deal.

... If Brown has any doubt about the benefit of making trade one of his key issues, he has yet to show it. In a recent interview, he noted that he is emphasizing other issues too, but is confident that Ohioans will see the connection between trade deals and their fears of losing jobs, health coverage and pensions.

"People know that we're losing jobs to China," he said. "It's clear as day that the biggest corporations in the country who outsource jobs wrote the job-killing trade agreements. It's clear as day."

Brown, who wrote a book in 2004 titled "Myths of Free Trade," contended that his view of U.S. trade policy is far more popular among ordinary voters than among the corporate elites that he blames for promoting trade deals he opposes.

"People who like these trade agreements typically are very insulated," he said. "They're economists in ivory towers. They are journalists in wood-paneled editorial boards. It's senators and presidents who rely on major corporate campaign contributors and don't walk through those factories where workers are so anxious about job loss."

Brown said he is not arguing that the United States should withdraw from efforts to expand global trade, but rather that it should rewrite the terms of various trade pacts it has signed with other countries as well as the rules governing the World Trade Organization, which referees international trade disputes.

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05/21/2006 / Permalink / 2006, Economy, Trade, (all tags)