Michaud condemns free-trade agreements

AUGUSTA – U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud returned to the State House on Thursday to condemn free-trade agreements and speak out in support of state legislation to study the effects of agreements such as NAFTA.

Michaud, a Democrat who represents Maine’s 2nd District, said the North American Free Trade Agreement and pacts like it have cost Maine more than 24,000 high-paying manufacturing jobs in the last eight years.

Michaud, a former paper mill worker who served 22 years in the Legislature, said not only blue-collar workers are threatened by job losses. He named high-tech companies that are now moving their computer and engineering jobs to Asian countries such as China and India.

The congressman said he supports a bill in the Legislature that would create a commission of lawmakers and representatives of labor, business, environmental and health interests to assess the impact of trade agreements.

The panel created under House Speaker Patrick Colwell’s bill, LD 1815, also would recommend further legislation. Colwell, D-Gardiner, said dozens of state laws considered “unnecessary barriers to trade” could be eliminated as a result of a trade agreement being negotiated.