House Democrats Tell USTR They Are Against FTA With Philippines

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative should reconsider negotiating a free-trade agreement with the Philippines, six House Democrats said in a Sept. 4 letter. The group, led by House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee ranking member Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., wrote in response to testimony USTR Robert Lighthizer gave in the Senate in July, in which he said that the Philippines would be a good place to start for a new trade agreement. "Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s rule has so far been marked by shocking human rights abuses" and child labor "remains a persistent and serious problem in the country," the group wrote.

More than 1 million Filipinos work in call centers that mostly serve American companies, and white-collar outsourcing is moving to higher-value jobs such as accountants and legal secretaries, the lawmakers said. "We are concerned that a trade agreement with the Philippines would further drive outsourcing of U.S. jobs," they wrote. They asked that Lighthizer meet with the subcommittee before starting the formal consultation process that would open an FTA negotiation.