Stephen F. Lynch Quotes

I'm not opposed to free trade if it's fair trade. But I am opposed to bad trade deals.

Free trade is good but not as good as fair trade.

In Illinois, we've seen job losses from agreements like CAFTA and NAFTA. Those agreements didn't help American workers - and they haven't brought improvements to the lives of workers in other countries, either.

My fellow economists and academics fail to understand the economics of trade in the real world. Traditional models of academia respect free trade without considering whether it is fair trade.

Not only must we fight to end disastrous unfettered free trade agreements with China, Mexico, and other low wage countries, we must fight to fundamentally rewrite our trade agreements so that American products, not jobs, are our number one export.

There is nothing inconsistent between standing up for free trade and standing up for American workers.

We need fair and free trade.

I am a firm believer in free but fair trade. However the United States should not be on the losing end of trade agreements that are not enforced. It is time that we make China play fairly.

Unfortunately, the United States has entered into several free trade agreements that do not sufficiently protect and support our manufacturing industries and the millions of American workers they employ.

But, we have had the debate in our country now for a number of years as to whether or not free trade agreements are good for economic growth and economic opportunity in creating jobs and lifting people out of poverty.

Free trade should not mean free labor.

Before we move forward with new efforts to lower the barriers to international free trade, we must review the consequences of the policies of the past and address the problems of the present.

Free trade is not based on utility but on justice.

We are on pace this year to have a trade deficit that is larger than $800 billion. We have never faced that before, but we continue to put forward trade agreements like these that leave us naked to competition that is neither free nor fair.

I fear that CAFTA will accelerate the demise of these domestic textile jobs.

The global economy shall not run without the consent of the workers….We demand fair trade, not free trade.

Free trade is not just an economic opportunity, it is a moral imperative:

We could not get NAFTA passed today with the current Congress…. We’ve got to combine trade liberalization with a broad-based sharing of the fruits of our productivity.

The people are rejecting so-called free trade and globalization that the elites presented as a positive thing.

Most Republicans and the business community extol the virtues of trade, depicting it as an engine of economic progress, while most Democrats and unions attack the exportation of American jobs, claiming that trade agreements are destroying our economy.

Unfettered free trade has led to a disaster.

If we're going to do trade agreements, as we should, we need trade agreements with rules that will lift up all boats, rather than continuing to pull down U.S. food safety standards, U.S. worker wages, environment, all that these job losses and all that this has done to pull down our standards.

President Trump ran on protecting U.S. jobs and renegotiating unfair trade policies - those policies strengthen labor laws around the world.

Free trade is an important component of our economy, but it also has to be fair. Too often, the needs of American workers are ignored while the interests of huge corporations are the focus of these trade deals.

Protectionism has never been an answer, will never be an answer. We need trade. We need trade agreements worldwide.