NY Times, May 8 2015 As Obama Visits, Nike Links Trade Accord to New Hiring By PETER BAKER
PORTLAND, Ore. — President Obama plans to campaign for a Pacific free-trade zone on Friday by visiting the headquarters of Nike, where executives will announce that they will create 10,000 jobs in the United States if the accord is approved. Nike for years has been used as a case study by opponents of trade liberalization for its reliance on low-wage workers in Asia. But Mr. Obama hopes that the company’s announcement will help him argue that a new 12-nation trade agreement could foster more manufacturing jobs at home, rather than shipping more jobs overseas. “We believe agreements that encourage free and fair trade allow Nike to do what we do best — innovate, expand our businesses and drive economic growth,” Mark Parker, the company’s chief executive, said in a statement released on Friday morning before Mr. Obama’s visit. “Nike has always led the way to product innovation, and now we will be able to accelerate our investments to continue to drive manufacturing innovation.” Nike said the tariff relief promised by the trade pact, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, would allow the company to speed development of advanced manufacturing methods and a domestic supply chain to support United States-based manufacturing. In addition to 10,000 new manufacturing and engineering jobs, the company predicted that the trade pact would create thousands of construction jobs and up to 40,000 indirect jobs with suppliers and service companies over 10 years. Only a small fraction of Nike’s current work force is in the United States. While the company employs about 26,000 people in America, its contract factories overseas employ about one million people, roughly a third of them in Vietnam. Labor activists have long complained that wages are low and that worker rights are routinely violated in such countries. “As Obama tries to sell a pact that many believe would lead to more U.S. job offshoring and lower wages, why would he honor a firm that has grown and profited not by creating U.S. jobs but by producing in offshore sweatshops with rock bottom wages and terrible labor conditions?” Public Citizen, a liberal advocacy group, asked in a statement released Thursday night. Protesters greeted Mr. Obama at a Democratic National Committee fund-raiser here on Thursday night. Several hundred people waving signs with messages like “No Fast Track to Hell” picketed near the Sentinel Hotel, where the president was gathering with 300 supporters who paid up to $33,400 for the privilege. Protesters also plan to be at Nike’s headquarters near Beaverton on Friday morning. Nike argues that it has revamped its practices since the 1990s, when it drew much criticism. Among other things, the company publicly disclosed all of the overseas factories that it has contracts with and created a policy that it says made labor and environmental standards higher priorities. Mr. Obama is pressing Congress to give him trade promotion authority, also known as “fast track,” which would allow him to submit an accord to lawmakers for an up-or-down vote without allowing amendments. Such authority is considered crucial to completing negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would be the largest trade pact that the United States has joined in more than two decades. The president contends that such a pact would be good for the American economy, but most of his fellow Democrats in Congress are poised to vote against him. He has tried to reassure his liberal base that he will include provisions on worker rights and the environment in any trade accord. “The trade deal that the president hopes to sign is one that is not only good for American workers, good for the American economy, but is one that includes the strongest, boldest human rights protections, labor protections and environmental protections we’ve seen in a trade deal,” Eric Schultz, a White House spokesman, told reporters on Air Force One during the flight to Portland on Thursday. Opponents have questioned that, saying the protections are similar to those that were included in trade pacts negotiated by Mr. Obama’s Republican predecessor, George W. Bush. Oregon, a trade-friendly state, is one of the few places where he has allies within his party in this fight. “Trade is critically important to Oregon,” said Representative Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat. “We want to make sure the T.P.P. advances Oregon interests and Oregon values, and this visit is an important opportunity to highlight both as we seek the strongest possible agreement.” _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
