Democratic governors from key industrial states met with their party’s congressional leaders yesterday and accused the Bush administration of being too soft on breaking down foreign-trade barriers.
Govs. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania, James E. Doyle of Wisconsin and Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan participated in a summit with more than 200 business and union leaders and presented their foreign-trade plan to Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill.
Among the participants were House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Rep. Charles B. Rangel of New York.
“Since President Bush took office in 2001, he has taken only 10 cases of unfair trade practices to the World Trade Organization, while 34 cases have been brought against us,” Mr. Rendell said.
He said from 1998 to 2000, President Clinton filed 32 claims against other countries to the WTO and 10 were levied against the United States.
“We have got to go back to that type of aggressive enforcement of fair trade. We have to start fighting back,” Mr. Rendell said.
Mrs. Granholm said the federal government has not focused on “supporting U.S. manufacturing in a real, meaningful way through trade policies and work force development practices.” And Mrs. Pelosi and Mr. Daschle criticized Mr. Bush and congressional Republicans for doing nothing to keep jobs in America.
The loss of American jobs to overseas firms is a contentious issue this election year, and both parties have put themselves on a collision course over the next eight weeks. Each announced strategies yesterday they say will stop the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs.
While the Democrats hammered on issues of unfair international trade policy, rising health care costs, misplaced tax incentives, and other obstacles to job creation, the House Republican leadership introduced its own eight-point legislative agenda drafted largely in part from recommendations that came out of the Commerce Department’s January manufacturing report.
Over the next two months, the Republicans will introduce legislation aimed at creating more research and development grants, offering tax incentives for business innovation, helping workers acquire job skills as they change careers, and breaking down foreign nations’ barriers to U.S. exports.
Other pieces of Republican-sponsored legislation that have been stymied in the Senate, such as energy and legal-liability reform, will be revised and presented again over the next two months.
House Democrats also have a plan.
“We obviously will introduce legislation of our own. They won’t let us speak about it on the floor,” said Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said the Democrats were playing political games with people’s lives rather than working in a bipartisan manner to solve the country’s employment problems.
“We see outsourcing as a problem to solve. The Democrats see it as an opportunity to exploit,” said Mr. DeLay, Texas Republican.
Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans said the three Democratic governors were clearly politicizing issues he had already discussed with them.
“We continue to be tough around the world on trade. We want to increase enforcement on intellectual-property theft and I have talked to them about this,” Mr. Evans said.
Mr. DeLay said if Democrats were serious about forming a real agenda to help people they would have joined the Republican at the table yesterday and found out that everyone is on the same page when it comes to protecting American jobs.
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