On February 9, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the US House of Representatives introduced legislation that would repeal Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China (PNTR).  PNTR has led to record US trade deficits and the loss of millionsn jobs.

“In industry after industry corporate America is shipping our manufacturing plants and our good paying jobs to China where desperate people are forced to work for wages as low as 20 cents an hour,” said US Representative Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who sponsored the legislation. 

According to congressional statements, the U.S. has lost more than 2.7 million manufacturing jobs, while China has created an estimated 2.5 million manufacturing jobs since the passage of PNTR in 2000.

The US government’s trade policy with China does little to protect the environment and human rights. Two-thirds of China's 1.3 billion citizens live on less than $1 a day and environmental standards are low. 

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) said the U.S. trade deficit with China has almost doubled, to approximately $160 billion, since Congress approved PNTR for China.

“Trade is a good thing, but it must be based on principles that are fair to American workers. The U.S. Congress can no longer allow corporate America to sell-out the middle class and move our economy to China.” 

USW was amongst those leading the fight in 2000 to stop PNTR in order to protect jobs and the environment. 

“Congress had a chance to stand up for the brutally oppressed workers in China and the hundreds of thousands of U.S. manufacturing workers who will lose their jobs because of increased imports from the sweatshops of China.  Instead, it turned its back on Chinese and American workers,” said former USW International President George Becker.   

“Workers around the world are suffering.  Human rights and religious rights are under attack by governments such as China.  The environment is at greater risk. All have gotten in the way of corporations which are driving to maximize profits by seeking the cheapest labor, the cheapest resource extraction, the least tax and regulation.” 

            FIGHT BACK

If your representative cosponsored this legislation (H.R.728), please contact them today to thank them for protecting American jobs and the environment, and urge them to continue doing so in the future.   

If your representative has not yet endorsed this bill, please contact them today and urge them to support H.R. 728.

Click here to find your representative and their contact information. 

Click here for the list of people that have already cosponsored the bill.