September 9, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 143 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages H7549-H7550]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            NAFTA 2.0/USMCA

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, the original NAFTA has been one of the 
most destructive economic forces to jobs in America. There hasn't been 
a single year of trade balance since its passage.
  I fought NAFTA tooth and nail when it was considered back in the 
1990s. And as the Representative for working class communities from 
Toledo to Cleveland, I have since joined every

[[Page H7550]]

one of my constituents in bearing witness to the devastating effects of 
what some call ``free trade.''
  On the campaign trail, President Trump repeatedly boasted he would 
scrap NAFTA and renegotiate a better deal. But his proposal lacks 
commonsense labor enforcement provisions, falls short of pressuring 
companies to reshore American jobs, and it provides massive carveouts 
for Big Pharma that will cause the price of prescription drugs to 
skyrocket even more.
  I have always been an advocate for fair trade among free people, but 
NAFTA crashed the largest economy in the world--the United States--into 
that of a developing nation--Mexico--without any plan to deal with the 
human and economic consequences.
  Madam Speaker, as currently written, the USMCA, NAFTA 2.0, continues 
this failed legacy of NAFTA 1.0, and remains a failure for the American 
worker. The USMCA is just NAFTA 2.0. It should be defeated.

                          ____________________