WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) took to the Senate Floor to applaud the confirmation of Katherine Tai to serve as United States Trade Representative. Brown, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, a leader on trade policy and a vocal champion of American workers, was a strong supporter of Tai’s nomination. Brown met with Tai in January to outline the importance of pursuing a trade policy that is centered around the Dignity of Work.

The first woman of color to ever serve as the President’s top trade advisor, Tai has committed to bringing diverse views to the table and putting workers at the center of U.S. trade policy.

“Katherine Tai is the right leader to take us in a new direction on trade, with American workers at the center. She’s a serious expert, she’s respected on both sides of the aisle – we saw that in her unanimous, bipartisan vote. And she has a proven track record of making progress for workers,” said Brown.

During her nomination hearing, Brown secured Tai’s commitment to enforce the Brown-Wyden worker protection provision in the USMCA to defend the rights of workers in the U.S. and Mexico. Tai also agreed to make forced labor enforcement – particularly a crackdown on China’s massive forced labor program – a top priority. 

Brown’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, can be found below:

For decades, Ohio workers have watched the spread of a corporate business model where companies shut down production in Toledo or Dayton or Youngstown, collect a tax break to move jobs to Mexico or China where they can exploit workers, only to sell their products back into the U.S.

Ohioans live the consequences every day.

Last week, 81 workers in Bucyrus, Ohio had their jobs outsourced to China, when GE-Savant moved production of its high-efficiency lightbulbs overseas.

Now, 81 workers are facing tough conversations at kitchen tables – about how their families survive, will they fall behind on the rent or the mortgage, do they move away, will their kids have to change schools.

And when one production line closes, the ripple effect extends to the whole community, and to other workers and communities in the supply chain.

Then yesterday, people in Northeast Ohio woke up to headlines about yet another American corporation deciding to build things in Mexico instead of Ohio, with Ford breaking its promise to invest $900 billion in Avon Lake.

Ohioans are tired of watching corporation after corporation abandon the workers and communities that have made their businesses successful.

We keep being told that production of cheap, simple products will be shipped overseas, while innovative, “high-value” products will be made in the United States, by American workers. And we see in Bucyrus and Avon Lake that that is just not happening.

And we are sick of it. Our trade policy has to change.

Katherine Tai understands that, and she is the right leader to take us in a new direction on trade, with American workers at the center.

She’s a serious expert, she’s respected on both sides of the aisle – we saw that in her unanimous, bipartisan vote.

And she has a proven track record of making progress for workers.

Last year, I voted for a trade agreement for the first time ever in my career, because of our work with Senator Wyden to fix the Trump Administration’s USMCA, and secure groundbreaking new worker protections.

Katherine Tai was one of the key policymakers who worked with us to make that happen.

Her work helped us make the first improvement to enforcing the labor standards in our trade agreements since we’ve been negotiating them

We know why companies close factories in Ohio and open them in Mexico – they can pay lower wages and take advantage of workers who don’t have rights.

American workers can’t compete, and we get a race to the bottom on wages and benefits.

The only way to stop it is by raising labor standards in every country we trade with, and making sure those standards are actually enforced.

That’s what Katherine Tai will to do.

She will enforce the laws we already have.

She will stand up for American workers and American businesses when countries like China cheat the rules.

She will work with us to level the playing field so Ohio steelworkers and autoworkers and communication workers can compete.

And she will not allow corporate lobbyists to write trade agreements, while locking workers out of the room.

At her confirmation hearing, I asked her what she will do to start to regain the trust of Americans on trade.

She said, “you start by listening.” And she talked about the Mahoning Valley, and listening to and understanding the concerns of all the communities that have gotten hurt over and over.

The Administration’s outline for its 2021 trade agenda, which Ms. Tai will be charged with carrying out, says that, quote, “trade policy should respect the dignity of work and value Americans as workers and wage-earners.”

That is the kind of thinking we need leading our trade policy.

And as the first woman of color to ever serve as the president’s chief trade advisor, Katherine Tai knows how important it is for the people in the room making trade decisions to actually reflect the diverse workforce our trade policy affects.

Of course we know one good appointment and one good provision won’t stop outsourcing.

I’m always going to be straight with American workers, and we have a long, long way to go to undo all the damage our trade policy has done over the past 30 years.

I’ve stood up to presidents of both parties on trade throughout my career, and that’s not going to change. One of my proudest votes was against NAFTA.

I’ll continue to watch closely what this administration does.

And if they show any hint of reverting back to the old way of doing things – of letting corporations dictate trade policy, at the expense of workers – they’ll hear about it from me.

This is going to take a constant effort over many years to reorient trade agreements and trade law from corporations to workers.

It also has to be coupled with real investment in the communities that have been hollowed out because of Washington and Wall Street’s past mistakes.

And it has to be paired with an overhaul of our tax code, to end once and for all the tax breaks – paid for by Ohioans – to send production overseas.

Trade doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

All our policies must work together to create a global market where workers are treated with dignity, safe on the job, paid fair wages, and are able to collectively bargain for better pay and benefits.

When you love this country you fight for the people who make it work. That’s what Katherine Tai will do.

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