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Ted Cruz on Free TradeRepublican Texas Senator |
Cruz's bill also takes aim at the United Nations, where there has been a surge in Chinese influence. The bill would offset U.S. payments to the U.N. equal to the amount paid by the world body to any of those Chinese companies. Foreign Policy Magazine reported that the United Nations had backed off a deal it had with Chinese Internet giant Tencent to help as a platform for thousands of online conversations to celebrate the United Nation's 75th anniversary.
Ted Cruz (R): No. Also opposed federal aid given to TX farmers hurt by trade retaliation.
Beto O'Rourke (D): No. They "will devastate our state, businesses, & economy."
CRUZ: Actually that's incorrect. There are two different agreements. There's TPA and TPP. I opposed TPP and have always opposed TPP, which is what you asked about. Free trade, when we open up foreign markets, helps Americans. But we're getting killed in international trade right now.We're driving jobs overseas.
FACTCHECK: No one explained the acronyms, so we looked them up. According to Mother Jones magazine:
TPP = Trans Pacific Partnership, a trade treaty between the US and a bunch of other countries around the Pacific Rim. It's been under negotiation for years.
TPA = Trade Promotion Authority, aka "fast track." This comes before the TPP vote, and guarantees that the treaty text will be submitted to Congress for an up-or-down vote with no amendments allowed. Without it, the treaty is dead, since other countries won't allow the US to unilaterally makes changes.
Donald TRUMP: The 45% tariff is a threat. It will be a tax if they don't behave. China dumps everything that they have over here. We can't get into China. The 45% is a threat that if they don't behave, we will tax you.
CRUZ: It's not China that pays the tax. It's you, the working men and women. So ask yourself at home: How is this helping you? If your wages have been stagnant for 20 years; if you can't pay the bills, how does it help you to have a president come and say, "I'm going to put a 45% tax on diapers, on automobiles, on clothing." That hurts you. It's why we've got to get beyond rhetoric of "China bad," and actually get to "how do you solve the problem?" Because this solution would hurt jobs and hurt hard-working taxpayers in America.
Moderators asked Cruz about his legal work for a Chinese tire company in its appeal against a $26 million judgment that it had stolen intellectual property from an American tire company. Cruz said he was one of several attorneys on the case and that he had represented American companies against Chinese firms as well.
Heritage Action summary of vote# S206: The Senate voted to table (kill) an amendment by Sen. Kirk to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank. Sen. Kirk recommends voting NO. Heritage Foundation recommends voting YES because the "Ex-Im Bank is little more than a $140 billion slush fund for corporate welfare."
OnTheIssues explanation: Voting NO would allow a vote on reauthorization of the Ex-Im Bank. Voting YES would kill the bill for reauthorizing the Ex-Im Bank.
Cato Institute reason for voting YES to kill the bill:The Ex-Im Bank's reauthorization buffs contend that Ex-Im fills a void left by private sector lenders unwilling to provide financing for certain transactions. Ex-Im's critics [say that] by effectively superseding risk-based decision-making with the choices of a handful of bureaucrats pursuing political objectives, Ex-Im risks taxpayer dollars. It turns out that for nearly every Ex-Im financing authorization that might advance the fortunes of a single US company, there is at least one US industry whose firms are put at a competitive disadvantage. These are the unseen consequences of Ex-Im's mission.
Summary from Congressional Record and Wikipedia:Vote to amend the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and establish the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Rather than a wholly new agreement, it has been characterized as "NAFTA 2.0"; final terms were negotiated on September 30, 2018 by each country. The agreement is scheduled to come into effect on July 1, 2020.
Case for voting YES by Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL); (Dec. 19, 2019)The USMCA includes stronger protections for American workers and enforceable labor standards, as well as environmental protections. It eliminates the Trump Administration's threat that the US could walk away entirely from the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, which would devastate US jobs and our economy.
Case for voting NO by Jared Huffman (D-CA); (Dec. 19, 2019) Democratic negotiators did a lot to improve Donald Trump's weak trade deal, especially in terms of labor standards and enforcement, but the final deal did not reach the high standard that I had hoped for. The NAFTA renegotiations were a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lift labor and environmental standards across the continent--to lock in serious climate commitments with two of our largest trading partners and dramatically improve labor standards and enforcement to slow the rise of outsourcing.
Legislative outcome: Bill Passed (Senate) (89-10-1) - Jan. 16, 2020; bill Passed (House) (385-41-5) - Dec. 19, 2019; signed at the G20 Summit simultaneously by President Trump, Mexican President Enrique Nieto, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Nov. 30, 2018