Lipinski: Renegotiated NAFTA Must Help Middle Class, Not Multinational Corporations

Congressman Dan Lipinski (IL-3) issued the following statement today after the Trump Administration officially announced its intention to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA):

“I’m pleased the NAFTA deal is finally being renegotiated, but this step is only the beginning of the process. We must make sure that the Administration restructures the agreement in a way that will ultimately give a much-needed boost to middle-class Americans, rather than just more breaks for powerful multinational corporations.

“As a blueprint for this and all future trade negotiations, I believe the Administration should follow the principles included in the ‘21st Century Workers’ Bill of Rights,’ which I helped introduce along with Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR-4). These principles include the right to unionize, protection of Buy American laws, environmental safeguards, a dispute resolution process that does not undermine American sovereignty (which was contained in the Trans-Pacific Partnership), and strong country-of-origin regulations.

“Bad trade deals have cost millions of good-paying middle-class jobs because these agreements were negotiated to help multinational corporations instead of American workers. It is time to change that.”