State of Illinois Archives: on Free Trade

Mark Curran: Tariffs may be necessary; subsidize farmers if required

Tammy Duckworth: Yes to Ex-im bank; Yes to fast-track

Ballotpedia.org analysis of Congressional voting record on trade issues:
• Voted NAY on Trade adjustment assistance (TAA): On 6/12/15, the House rejected the TAA measure in HR 1314 by a vote of 126 to 302. TAA is a federal program providing American workers displaced by foreign trade agreements with job training and services.
• Voted NAY on Trade promotion authority (TPA): On 6/12/15, the House narrowly passed the TPA measure in HR 1314 by a vote of 219 to 211. TPA would give the president fast-track authority to negotiate trade agreements sent to Congress without the opportunity for amendment or filibuster.
• Voted YEA on Export-Import Bank: On 10/27/15, the House passed HR 597, the Export-Import Bank Reform and Reauthorization Act, by a vote of 313-118. The bill allows the Export-Import Bank to resume offering assistance in the form of loans and insurance to foreign companies that want to buy U.S. goods.

Jim Oberweis: Challenge in China is lack of clarity on taxes

Oberweis: We talked a lot to our tax people on this, as well. As it currently stands, nobody pays it and you have to be aware of it. I think you're going to see clarification on it, though. I think, within the next couple years, there'll be much sharper clarification. It's not only a question of China, but what about other companies that are listed elsewhere or have part of their business elsewhere? Or companies where their headquarters are elsewhere, but all the businesses are in China? That's one of the challenges of investing in China, is the lack of clarity with respect to tax positions. We have experts on our team who try to help advise us. I'll be the first to tell you, it is not a crystal clear area and you have to make the best decisions you can under the circumstances that you know.

Jim Oberweis: Invest in Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, India, and China

Oberweis: I'm going to Jakarta for an exploratory reason in February.

Q: Do you fear you've missed it?

Oberweis: Maybe. It's been on fire. We're going to go visit companies and look and see. We were in Vietnam two years ago looking at the same types of things. Vietnam is a great place to be. It's a really hard place to play public equity markets, just because it's a relatively corrupt insider trading environment. We're certainly seeing more ideas in Japan than we've seen in a long time. Part of that is currency, part of it is rebuilding and part of it is, I think, increasing trade with China. You would expect that, with the exception of the cultural barriers that are so high, but I think you'll see a little bit more of that in the decade to come. Money has a way of trumping even the gravest of enemies over time. India has always been an area of interest for us. Until recently, it's been hard to find the valuations that we like.

Pat Quinn: Exports support 500,000 jobs in IL; double that in 5 years

Alexi Giannoulias: Eliminate $200B in tax loopholes that ship jobs overseas

Barack Obama: Fair trade should have tangible benefits for US