yet two academic researchers estimate that apple's iphone, one of the best-selling u.s. technology products, actually added $1.9 billion to the u.s. trade deficit with china last year. so we develop these products but we can't manufacture them here because these companies prefer low wages in china. and on and on it goes. not just blue-collar, white-collar jobs as well. mr. president, -- and today, we're not talking about china, we're not talking about mexico. we're talking about korea, we're talking about panama, we're talking about colombia, but it's the same old story. chamber of commerce is back again, creating all of these jobs, until the day after the agreement is signed, and then we talk about how they could throw american workers out on the street. you know, it's interesting, mr. president, poll after poll shows that to say the least, the american people do not have an enormous amount of respect for the united states congress and see congress living in a very different world than working class people are living in, and i don't know of any example where that schizophrenia is greater than in terms of trade. you go back home, i don't know what it's like in rhode island, tell you what it's like in vermont. you ask people, what do you think about these trade agreements with china? do you think they are creating jobs in america? are you cuts? of course not. everybody knows that. and the polls tell us that. in december, 2010, an nbc news/"wall street journal" poll, 69% of americans believe that -- quote -- "free trade between the united states and other countries cost the u.s. jobs" -- unquote. i think every group in america except the united states congress seems to get that point. but then again, the united states congress is surrounded by lobbyists and campaign contributors that come from big money interests, and they like these unfeather -- unfettered free trade agreements. the economic policy institute has estimated that the korean free trade agreement will lead to the loss of 159,000 american jobs and will increase the trade deficit by nearly $14 billion over a seven-year period. why do you want to go forward in a trade agreement that will cost you jobs? now, president obama has estimated that the korea free trade agreement will -- quote - "support at least 70,000 american jobs" -- unquote -- but the headline of a december 72010 article in " the new york times "says it all -- quote -- " few new jobs expected soon from free trade agreement with south korea." according to this article, the korean free trade agreement is likely to result in little if any net job creation in the short run, according to the government's own analysis, our government's own analysis. this analysis was done by the u.s. international trade commission which projects that our overall trade deficit will increase, not decrease, if korea free trade is implemented. this is our own international trade commission. what are we doing? what are we doing? now, mr. president, let me just touch on one aspect of the korea free trade agreement which deserves a lot of focus and i fear very much that it's not, and that is that the korean free trade agreement will force american workers not just to compete against low wage workers in south korea but also to compete against the virtual slave labor conditions that exist in north korea, a country which is certainly one of the most undemocratic countries in the world, and to add insult to injury, not only are our workers going to be competing against slave labor in north korea, some of the proceeds from this free trade will go to the dictatorship of kim jong-il, certainly one of the more vicious dictators in the entire world. and what that is about, mr. president, is that a number of companies in south korea, including hyundai and many others own companies that are doing business in a large industrial area in north korea, and what this agreement will allow is products made in north korea to go to south korea and then come back into the united states of america. and i know there has been a little bit of confusion on this but there shouldn't be. according to a january, 2011, report from the congressional research service -- quote -- " -- i hope everybody who plans on voting for this free trade agreement with korea hears this. this is c.r.s." there is nothing to prevent south korean firms from performing intermediate manufacturing operations in north korea and then performing final manufacturing processes in south korea. for example, as much as 65% of the value of a south korean car coming into the united states could actually be made in north korea if this trade agreement goes into effect." and today we have over 47,000 north korean workers that are currently employed by more than 120 south korean firms including hyundai at the kaesing complex in north korea. what an agreement, what an agreement. slave labor in north korea manufacturing products which go to south korea and then come into the united states of america, and meanwhile, the dictatorship of north korea gets a piece of the action, a significant piece of the action on top of the pennies an hour that the north korean workers get. in 2007, the then-prime minister of south korea, is now the current south korean ambassador to the united states said, and i -- quote -- "-- ambassador to the united states said --" the planned ratification of the south korea-u.s. free trade agreement will pave the way for the export of products built in kaisong, north korea, to the u.s. market." end of quote. isn't that wonderful, isn't that wonderful? bad enough for the workers of our country to have to compete against people in china and vietnam, people making 20 cents an hour, 30 cents an hour. now we're asked to compete against slave labor in north korea. that's the treaty that people will be voting for today. mr. president, i think a lot of folks have mentioned in terms of colombia the assault on trade unionists there. since 1986, some 2,800 trade unionists have been assassinated. less than 6% of these murders have been prosecuted by the colombian government. and last year alone, last year alone in a small country, more than 50 trade unionists were assassinated in colombia, up 9% from 2009. now, i would ask you, mr. president, if in colombia 50 c.e.o.'s of companies were killed last year, were murdered last year. do you think that people here would be voting for a free trade agreement with colombia? or would they say why would we want an agreement with a company -- with a country which is so unlawful, which is so brutal, where so many c.e.o.'s are being killed? but it's not c.e.o.'s, it's just trade union leaders, so i guess it is okay to have an agreement there. i would also tell you, mr. president, that president obama had a different view on colombia when he was a candidate for president in 2008. in october of 2008, candidate barack obama said that -- quote -- "the history in colombia right now is that labor leaders have been targeted for assassination on a fairly consistent basis and there have not been prosecutions." end of quote. candidate obama in 2008 was right to oppose this trade agreement. unfortunately as president he is wrong to support it right now. let me say a word about the panama free trade agreement. panama is a very small country. its entire annual economic output is only $26.7 billion a year or about .2% of the american economy, so i think no one is going to legitimately stand up here and say that trading with such a small country is going to significantly increase american jobs. then why would we? why would we be considering a trade agreement with panama? what's going on there? well, it turns out, mr. president, that panama is a world leader when it comes to allowing wealthy americans and large corporations to evade u.s. taxes by stashing their cash in offshore tax havens. the panama free trade agreement would make this bad situation much worse. i'm a member of the budget committee, as you are, mr. president, and we have heard testimony time and time again that our country is losing up to $100 billion every year as corporations stash their money in postal addresses in the cayman islands, bermuda and in panama, and this trade agreement makes that situation even worse. according to citizens for tax justice, "a tax haven has one of three characteristics. it has no income tax or a very low rate. in tax, it has bank secrecy laws, and it has a history of noncooperation with other countries on exchanging information about tax matters. panama has all three of those, and they are probably the worst "end of quote, according to citizens for tax justice. the trade agreement with panama with effectively bar the united states from cracking down on illegal and abusive off-shore tax havens in panama. combating tax haven abuse in panama would be a violation of this free trade agreement exposing the u.s. to fines from international authorities. well, at a time when we have a $14 trillion plus national debt and at the time when we are frantically figuring out ways to try to lower our deficit, some of us believe that it is a good idea to do away with all of these tax havens by which the wealthy and large corporations stash their money abroad and avoid paying u.s. taxes. the panama trade agreement would make that goal even more difficult. i want to say another word on issues that is i think important as we look into the future. the proposed korea free trade agreement threatens both the 340-b drug program which requires drug companies to provide discounts on covered outpatient drugs purchased by federally funded health providers such as community health centers and other safety net provider and the ability of medicare part b to hold down the prices of outpatient drugs. the korean free trade agreement would potentially allow korean drug manufacturers to challenge the pricing under these programs on the grounds that the prices are not market driven. in other words, forcing prices up in this country. and that is something that was pushed by the way, by our trade -- our trade representative, not theirs. in essence, the parliament industry's lobbyists with complete indifference to the plight of millions of the most frail and vulnerable americans, have succeeded in inserting provisions into the korean trade agreement that would allow korean companies to maximize their -- maximize their profits by challenging the cost control measures under the 340-b and medicare part b programs. unfortunately, mr. president, this is just the tip of the iceberg. right now the pharmaceutical lobby and they are a very, very powerful lobby, and the united states trade representative are negotiating a new trade agreement, the so-called trans-pacific partnership that i fear very much will make a bad situation in terms of drug access for the developing world, for poor people all over the world much worse than it already is. their aim yet again is to maximize drug company profits at the expense of the most vulnerable populations by tying the hands of health authorities here and in other developed and developing countries abroad who seek to provide access to low-cost generic pharmaceutical drugs for their citizens. in negotiating the trans-pacific partnership, our government is actively pushing intellectual property laws for medicines that are more restrictive than we impose even here in the united states with the effect of making it far more difficult to get generic drugs on the market in those countries. one of them, vietnam, is a good example. vietnam obviously is a very, very poor country. vietnam has received more than $320 million from the president's emergency plan for aids relief, created on the president -- under president george w. bush and continued under president obama since 2004. the function of this program is to make sure that the poorest people in the world who have diseases like aids are able to get the drugs they need at a price they can afford to pay. and that means generic -- making generic treatments available. the pet far program has had significant success. as somebody who was not a great fan of president george w. bush this is an area where he actually did something quite positive and that program is credited with saving millions of lives in 15 developing nations over the last seven years. in the face of one of the most severe humanitarian crises in modern history the united states put billions of dollars into doing something about it and we are doing that today. so why in the face of this success by one arm of our government would another arm work to pull the rug out from underneath it? yet that is what the u.s. trade representative's office is doing just now. in other words, on one hand what we are trying to do is the right thing, the humanitarian thing, and make sure that poor and sick people around the world are able to get the medicines that they desperately need to stay alive at a price they can afford to pay. and on the other hand, another part of the united states government is saying wait a second, we got to protect the interest of the drug companies, make sure they can make as much money as possible, that they can charge and force poor companies to pay outrageously high prices for drugs even if that means that many, many people die because they can't afford those drugs. so this is a contradiction, this is what our new trade policies are about. i will be back on the floor at some point in the not-zoo-distant -- not-too-distant future to talk more about this but let me conclude, mr. president, by saying this. the country is in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the 1930's, millions of americans have seen a decline in their standard of living, the gap between the rich and everybody else is going wider. that is the reality of the american economy today. one of the reasons for the collapse of the middle class is the loss of millions and millions of good-paying manufacturing jobs. and one of the key reasons -- not the only reason but one of the key reasons that we are losing millions of manufacturing jobs are disastrous trade policies designed, designed to allow american corporations to shut down here, move to low-wage countries, hire people there, pennies an hour, bring their products back. that is a policy, i suppose you can say that has worked if you're the c.e.o. of a large corporation. you make a lot more money paying people 50 cents snow shower than $20 an hour. you make a lot more money working in a country where there are no environmental standards rather than a country where you have to have some standards protecting air and water. that's what our trade policy has been. and it seems to me to be enormously foolish for us to continue this failed policy of nafta, of cafta, of permanent normal trade relations with cheap and extend them to korea, panama, and colombia. i urge, i urge my colleagues to stand up to the big-money interests who want to us pass these trade agreements, stand up for american workers and say no, trade is a good thing but it has to be based on principles that protect ordinary americans, working people, not just the c.e.o.'s of large corporations. with that, mr. president, by yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today in the wake of another very sobering jobs report. unemployment remains stalled at 9.1%, 14 million americans are out of work. another nine million have been forced into part-time jobs because they simply cannot find full-time employment. these challenging economic times demand that congress and the administration put aside partisanship and work together in earnest to address the prolonged jobs crisis. many of the decisions that will come before congress in the next few months will be difficult ones, including those that must be made to restore fiscal order to our nation's books. but there are bipartisan measures that we know will create and preserve jobs now. we must work together to advance them. one such measure before us today is the free trade agreement with south korea. as president obama stated last week, this agreement will make it easier for american companies to sell their products in south korea, and provide a major boost to our exports. south korea is our country's seventh largest trading partner. the u.s. international trade commission estimates -- estimates that implementation of this agreement would increase our gross domestic product by $10 billion to $12 billion, and annual merchandise exports by $10 billion. the i.t.c. further estimates that the agreement will reduce the u.s. trade deficit with korea by between $3 billion and $4 billion. and analysis of the korean agreement conducted by the staff of the i.t.c. at the request of the senate finance committee concludes that the agreement could create up to 280,000 american jobs. including more than 650 jobs in my home state of maine. mr. president, just this week there were announcements of 130 jobs lost at a paper mill in maine, and 65 jobs eliminated at a call center. so these new jobs, potentially 650 new jobs, would be welcome indeed. south korea is the fifth largest international market for maine products. last year, the value of maine exports to south korea reached nearly $100 million, including $31 million in chemical products, $29 million in wood pulp, $15 million in civilian aircraft and engine parts, $7 million in electrical machinery, and $5 million in coated paper and paper board. upon implementation of the u.s.-korean free trade agreement, more than 95% of maine's exports to south korea would be duty-free. let me repeat that. 95% of our exports from maine to south korea would be duty-free. that means that the elimination of these barriers to maine's exports would expand markets for maine's manufacturers and agricultural producers. and that, mr. president, translates into saving jobs and creating jobs. korea is the fourth largest and fastest-growing market for america's frozen potatoes, a major industry in my state. in 2009, the u.s. share of the korean market was 81% compared to 2% market share for the european union. but with the implementation of the european union-korean trade agreement this past july, the european union frozen potatoes now enter the korean market duty-free. that obviously gives european union growers a significant competitive advantage over american exporters who face an 18% tariff for shipping their products into korea. the u.s.-korean agreement would eliminate this tariff immediately, leveling the playing field for our producers. according to the maine potato board, which has endorsed this agreement, passage of this free trade agreement is expected to translate into a $35 million annual increase in u.s. frozen potato exports to korea. more important, in the long term it will allow american potatoes to be the product of choice in the korean market because, as the presiding officer well knows, maine potatoes taste better than those grown by the european union countries. in all seriousness, we do need to eliminate these discrepancies in tariffs that give our competitors an advantage over our american producers. exports are essential to a strong industrial manufacturing base throughout our country and in the state of maine. i want to read an excerpt from a letter that i recently received from the plant manager of the general electric energy plant in bangor, maine. the plant manager had this to say about the potential impact if this free trade agreement were approved. he wrote, as follows: "g.e.'s continuing act to pursue expanding international opportunities for our aviation, energy, and financial services exports is critical to our more than 700 workers in the state of maine. in fact, 100% of the new steam turbine units coming out of our bangor plant this year and next will be exported." that just shows how critical that exp