Ohio 2006 Senate Debate: on Free Trade

Mike DeWine: Tariffs against dumping steel, & give fines to US companies

BROWN: I would renegotiate NAFTA, as I would renegotiate PNTR with China. Mike DeWine has supported every time these trade agreements that give incentives to the big corporations.

DeWINE: I’ll give you an example on trade. Steel. When these steel companies were importing steel, dumping steel in the US from China & other countries, we got the president to put tariffs on. It made a big difference. Another example. Sen. Byrd and I worked together on the Byrd Amendment, which says is that when a foreign country dumps into the US, instead of putting that money into the US Treasury when we fine them, we give that money to the US companies. That’s brought back $315 million just for Ohio companies. But the bigger issue is, Sherrod thinks you can build a wall around the state of Ohio. [Yet] when it comes time to protect Ohio industries, he’s not there.

BROWN: All of us were involved in [the steel issue]. Neither of those laws that he talks about are still in effect.

Sherrod Brown: Supports fair trade; opposes exporting jobs

BROWN: I would renegotiate NAFTA, as I would renegotiate PNTR with China. We’ve lost so many small businesses, as these big companies outsource. And Mike DeWine has supported every time these trade agreements that give incentives to the big corporations.

DeWINE: When steel companies were dumping steel, we got tariffs. When a foreign country dumps into the US, we give the fine to the US companies. When it comes time to protect Ohio industries, he’s not there.

BROWN All of us were involved in [the steel issue]. The problem is, those tariffs to protect the steel industry, they didn’t last very long. Neither of those laws that he talks about are still in effect. But I want to see more trade. I just don’t want one-way free trade where our biggest export is jobs to Mexico & China. I want fair trade, with more exports, not this free trade that causes the kind of job loss that we’re seeing. We simply have abandoned the middle class when we passed these trade agreements.