DeLauro on TPP: Just Don’t Do It Statement on President’s Speech at Nike

WASHINGTON, DC—Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) released the following statement today in advance of President Obama’s speech at Nike:

“Nike’s announcement today may seem like big news, but even if all the promised jobs are created over the next decade, that would be a drop in the bucket compared to the number of jobs that could leave our country if we fast track the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Nike has made its billions not by creating American jobs, but by outsourcing those jobs to places where labor is cheap and rights are few. The TPP would promote that disastrous business model.

“Nike employs more than one million people worldwide; most of them are contract labor with very few rights or benefits. Almost all Nike products are made in low-wage countries whose abysmal sweatshop conditions have made Nike a byword for labor abuse. Its top production venue is in Vietnam, where independent unions are banned, goods are produced with child and forced labor, and the minimum wage is less than 60 cents an hour.

“This business model is not good for America and has contributed to the single biggest economic issue facing American families today: that too many jobs do not pay enough to live on. The kind of outsourcing and offshoring Nike practices, enabled by successive trade agreements, has been a major contributor to this reality. If it passes, the TPP will encourage this exploitative business model in the largest trade agreement in history. No wonder the Administration has kept the text of TPP classified, and now wants to limit scrutiny and ban amendments by fast-tracking the deal through Congress.

“The Administration needs to understand that American workers and wages have suffered enough. We need policies that keep their jobs here, not make it easier to send them overseas.”