Hoffa Urges White House To Fix Trade Policy

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa told the White House to “think America first” when it comes to trade policy.

Hoffa was representing organized labor at the White House Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth on Dec. 3. He participated in a discussion about expanding jobs through exports, along with White House officials and business leaders.

President Obama cited Hoffa’s remarks in his nationally televised address following the discussions. “One of the problems is the trade policy,” Hoffa said. “We’ve had a bad trade policy going back to Clinton, going back to Bush.”

“We made bad trade deals,” Hoffa said. “If you’re going to export, you need to open markets.”

He pointed out that Korean companies sell cars here but we can’t sell cars there. He said a trade deal with Korea should not be ratified because it doesn’t open Korea’s economy.

“We still can’t get our beef in, we can’t get our cars in,” he said. The same is true of China and Japan, he said.

Hoffa further urged enforcement of existing trade laws.

“If this government wants to do something, enforce the trade laws if we have them.”

He also said the U.S. government should buy American products.

“When you go to China, they think ‘Buy Chinese’. You want to do business there, you build a plant there.”

Again, the same is true in Japan and Korea. “They put their countries first. We don’t do that.”

“The Pentagon could be doing so much more by making sure we buy American products.”

He referred to the U.S. Air Force’s decision to buy airplanes from a European country, Airbus, rather than Chicago-based Boeing. Congress investigated the deal and asked whether the Air Force considered the impact on American jobs.

“They said, ‘No’,” Hoffa said. “That should have been the No. 1 thing they think about.”

To read archived articles from General President Hoffa, click here.