Reed Defends Record Following Challenger’s Foreign Trade Accusations

A map featuring countries the U.S. currently has Free Trade Agreements with. The United States is in blue. Bilateral/Multilateral FTA’s are in green. Proposed/Suspended Bilateral/Multilateral FTA’s are in orange.

JAMESTOWN – Congressional candidate John Plumb (D-Lakewood) is taking Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) to task over his voting record when it comes to U.S. Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with other countries.  According to Plumb’s campaign, Reed has supported and approved every FTA that’s come before him and as a result they’ve resulted in thousands of jobs leaving the region.

However, Reed’s campaign say that while the Corning Republican has approved all three FTAs that have come up for a vote since his joining congress, it’s not true that they’ve resulted in thousands of jobs leaving the region. Instead, they say the agreements have benefited the region, especially when it comes to agriculture.

PLUMB: REED’S MANUFACTURING SUMMIT MEANT TO HIDE TERRIBLE RECORD ON TRADE

John Plumb

On Monday, Plumb’s campaign sent out a release criticizing Reed for holding a Manufacturing Summit this week in Corning, saying its part of his effort to hide his support for trade policy that’s hurt regional business and families.

“Congressman Tom Reed continues to say one thing and do another,” Plumb said in the release. “Now he is holding a manufacturing summit to try to hide his terrible record of rigging the system against working families here in Western New York. He has voted to approve every free trade deal that has come before him in Congress – and those bad deals have resulted in thousands of good jobs disappearing from our region.”

In support of his comment, Plumb’s campaign included background data on foreign trade deals that have had an adverse impact on New York jobs, adding that they are similar to the ones that Reed has supported – including trade data stemming from NAFTA (which has cost NY 365,000 manufacturing jobs), as well as “free trade with China” (which has cost the state 180,000 jobs through 2013). He also pointed to Reed’s support of the 2015 Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) bill – which gave Congress the right to approve or reject future FTAs – as his support of a policy that now makes it easier for the U.S. to pass foreign trade deals.

On Monday WRFA asked Congressman Reed if he’d respond to Plumb’s allegations, in particular his campaign’s reference to NAFTA, a Free Trade Deal with China, and the free trade deal with South Korea.

“It always amazes me, this misinformation and the falsehoods… to say we voted for NAFTA and other agreements that are out there; that was over a decade ago, well before any of my time in Washington DC.,” Reed said. “What we’re looking for is for fair trade. We’re looking for is to make sure our negotiators are putting forth trade policy in order to allow our manufacturers and businesses to compete on the International Stage.”

Reed is correct. He was not in office when NAFTA was approved and there is no free trade deal currently in place with China. In fact there are only three FTAs that have come before congress since Reed took office in late 2010 and they are the FTAs with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea (all approved in October 2011 and put into effect in May 2012).

REED’S SUPPORT OF S. KOREA, COLOMBIA, AND PANAMA FTAs

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

In his media release, Plumb also took Reed to task for his support of an FTA with South Korea, pointing out that the U.S. trade deficit with South Korea rose 48 percent in the top 10 products that New York exports to South Korea. But Plumb’s campaign did not present any data that could illustrate the specific impact the agreement has had on jobs and businesses in Western New York or the 23rd Congressional District to support his statement that “every free trade deal supported by Reed has resulted in thousands of good jobs disappearing from our region.”

Meanwhile Reed’s campaign director confirms that Congressman Reed has approved three separate free trade deals, adding that they did have a benefit for the region.

“We need to protect our industries and our farmers,” said Reed campaign communications director Amy Hasenberg on Tuesday. “Tom supported the FTA with South Korea because there were tremendous trade benefits for our farmers. It helps our farmers sell their products in South Korea, in particular our fruit farmers.”

Hasenberg also said that the same reason applies for Reed’s support of the trade agreements with Panama and Colombia.

While no data is available on the specific impact each agreement had on farmers in the New York 23rd Congressional District, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows total U.S. agriculture export revenue for Colombia went up 115% between 2011 (the year before the agreement was enacted) and 2015. During that same time period agriculture export revenue increased 32% for Panama. However, total U.S. agriculture export revenue was down 13 percent for Korea during that same time period.

For the complete picture of how the FTAs that Reed supported affected overall trade surplus/deficit with each respective country, we turn to the U.S. Census Bureau.

According to Census data, before the South Korea FTA, the U.S. was running a trade deficit with that country of $13.20 billion (2011). That amount ballooned to a deficit of $28.31 billion in 2015.  So it would appear that overall, South Korea has definitely seen more benefit from the agreement.

The opposite is the case for Colombia. In 2011, the U.S. had a trade deficit of $8.78 billion in 2011. But by 2015, just 3 years after the FTA was implemented, the U.S. was actually running a trade surplus of $2.21 billion.

And for Panama there has been hardly any impact on overall trade balance. The U.S. had a trade surplus of $7.86 billion with Panama in 2011 and that surplus was down only slightly to $7.26 billion.

SUPPORT FOR SOME FTAs DOESN’T MEAN SUPPORT FOR ALL

So it appears that it is correct to say that Tom Reed has approved every trade agreement that’s come before him in congress, and at least one of those FTAs (South Korea) has resulted in more products and business coming into the U.S. rather than going out to that country. But given that the Colombian and Panamanian FTAs have had a positive to nil impact on trade, it’s not fair to say all FTAs supported by Tom Reed “have resulted in thousands of good jobs disappearing from our region.”

It’s also a stretch for the Plumb campaign to point to NAFTA as an example of a failed FTA and to try and draw a connection to Reed’s support of the other FTAs, considering he wasn’t even in office when that deal was finalized.

And since the United States doesn’t have an FTA with China (China become a trade partner with the U.S. in 2001 via the World Trade Organization), it’s again misleading to point to Chinese trade data with the U.S. in order to draw a conclusion that Reed’s support of other FTAs means he also supports policy that’s created the current trade deficit (and subsequent loss of jobs in New York) with China.

One of the major trade agreements currently being considered by congress is the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) – an FTA among the twelve Pacific Rim countries (including the U.S.).  Congressman Reed has already come out and stated that he opposes TPP.

“Our farmers are just one of the reasons Tom opposed TPP,” Hasenberg said. “TPP is not fair to our farms because it will have a large negative impact on them. Tom is trying to take care of our families and that means standing up for all of our industries including the family farm.”

Plumb is challenging Reed for his seat in the 2016 general election. Over the past two decades he’s served as a submarine officer in the Navy and later as an official at the Department of Defense. Most recently he’s served as director of defense policy and strategy at the National Security Council and is also a Navy Reserve Commander. He graduated from Randolph High School in 1988.

Reed is an attorney and former mayor of Corning who was elected to Congress in 2010 and has represented Chautauqua County since January 2013, when redistricting created the new boundaries for the state’s 23^rd congressional district.