Trade in the Oregon Senate Race: Smith v Merkley

This is a nail biter, and a race between candidates with strong differences on trade. 

Democrat Jeff Merkley, Speaker of the Oregon House, has just pulled in front of Republican incumbent Gordon Smith.  Here's Pollster.com's summary of the polling results (click to make it bigger):

The Cato Institute gives Smith (who has been in the Senate since 1996) a good ranking on trade votes, not so good on subsidies.  In the Cato figure each axis represents an index that runs from 0% to 100%. The higher an "X" is along the vertical axis the greater the opposition to subsidies, the further an "X" is to the right the greater the opposition to trade barriers:

Merkley is making trade an issue:

Here's another ad about tax breaks for companies shipping jobs overseas:

Here's Merkley's issues statement on trade:

Reforming Our Trade Agreements

NAFTA-based Free Trade Agreements

Jeff opposes the Peru Free Trade Agreement, and other trade agreements that use NAFTA as a model.  Imagine for a moment just what would happen if any state in this country suddenly threw out all labor standards – the minimum wage, the right to organize workers, the 40-hour work week. And imagine what would happen if the EPA allowed them to ignore all environmental laws – if they could dump waste anywhere they wanted, if they could pollute the air with greenhouse gasses at unchecked levels. Every factory owner in the country would move their operations there, leaving workers in the rest of the states without a good paying job and without a way to provide for their families. In our global economy, moving jobs off shore is just as easy as moving them to another state. We can’t let that happen.

Fast Track Authority

We also can’t trust that once George Bush is out of office that the next Republican president – whoever or whenever it may be – will insist on enforceable standards when negotiating agreements. So we absolutely MUST resist any attempt to give this and future Presidents fast track trade authority without Congressional oversight.

Trade Adjustment Assistance

We live in a global economy, and we can’t ignore that fact. If we recognize that we can’t turn back the clock and stop globalization, we can set our sights on reasonable goals like doing more to assist workers and communities get the training and education they need to compete in our new global economy.

Offshore Tax Shelters

We can take steps here at home to make sure all corporations are pitching in with their fair share by reforming the tax code to stop companies from setting up tax shelters in Bermuda in order to avoid paying their fair share in taxes. Gordon Smith continually supports allowing companies to shelter their assets in offshore accounts, rather than making them pay their fair share like the rest of us do.

And here are some of his proposals for creating quality jobs in Oregon:

1. Cancel or fix unfair trade deals

Gordon Smith has failed to oppose every single one of these bad trade deals, including NAFTA and CAFTA. Jeff Merkley will fight to end unfair trade agreements that have cost Oregon nearly 70,000 jobs. Merkley will demand enforceable environmental and labor standards to protect our planet and protect workers in America and around the world.
[Oregon Fair Trade Campaign]

2. End federal giveaways to companies that ship jobs overseas

Jeff Merkley will end loopholes that subsidize corporations that build foreign operations and let companies avoid paying taxes on the profits from those operations, shipping American jobs overseas. In 2004, Gordon Smith voted against an amendment for tax credits that would have encouraged domestic job growth and discouraged outsourcing of good American manufacturing jobs.
[Senate vote #41, 3/11/04]...

4. Strengthen the Buy American Act

Over the last several decades special interests have weakened important safeguards that protect our national security and support American workers. In 2003, Gordon Smith cast the deciding vote for John McCain's amendment to encourage outsourcing by exempting the Department of Defense from the Buy American Act. Merkley will work to strengthen the Buy American Act to ensure that our government is building an American workforce that can fulfill our country’s military and national security needs.
[Senate vote #191, 5/21/03]