USTR Hears From Mountain West Workers Angered by Trade
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative senior advisers Jamila Thompson and Beth Baltzan and special counsel Victor Ban said during a recent trip to Wyoming, Montana and Idaho that workers they heard from want the office to increase the use of enforcement tools in the USMCA.
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"When it comes to trade, they emphasized that the playing field is not level," the USTR officials said in an emailed release. "Workers have to compete with substandard labor regimes abroad -- affecting wages, benefits, and workplace safety -- and lax environmental regulation."
They said the workers they talked to called for "new tools to correct for unfair competition and supply chain dependencies. Workers were also disillusioned with conglomerates that use trade to harm unionization efforts, while exploiting tax loopholes."
Workers said "the 'de minimis' allowance in our import laws disadvantages good-paying union jobs."
The release did not detail what sorts of workers they talked to, beyond sugar beet processors, who are in a union. They said they heard from Montanans who complained that their state does not capture downstream production based on the natural resources extracted from Montana.
"Workers conveyed pride in their careers and in maintaining good jobs with benefits, and retirement with dignity. They shared the consequences to their communities of unfair trade practices. They value their sense of place; when factories and businesses close, the tax base suffers -- affecting schools, libraries, and other public services. In many rural communities, many of these workers are also fire fighters, mayors, school board members, and farmers. Once gone, jobs are hard to replace; the fabric of society is destroyed, and relocation comes at the cost of family- and community-based support systems.
"We are grateful to all whom we met for sharing their expertise and wisdom informed by the impact of policy on their lived experience. These communities deserve economic policy that advances their security, well-being, and ability to thrive in today’s economy," the trio wrote.