Robert Lighthizer Quotes

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.

China is crippling our manufacturing economy and eliminating our jobs by illegally flooding our markets.

Beneficial in theory, so-called free trade agreements far too often have been detrimental to the United States economy and the manufacturing sector that forms its central pillar.

Unfettered free trade has been a disaster not only for Americans but for the working people of Mexico and Canada as well.

I personally do not believe in protection mechanisms. It’s like a false friend. It makes you believe that you can compete, but you can’t compete and as the protection mechanisms fall away—the world is going for this—then you are in trouble.

It's much easier for non-Indian companies to raise capital because they have profitable markets elsewhere. You might call it capital dumping, predatory pricing, or anti-WTO, but it's a very unfair playing field for Indian startups.

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.

That level of trade deficit throttles real growth in our country and continues the unfortunate path of selling out America. We are not winning the global trade war, we are losing it badly.

The Bush Administration and the Congress have to stop ignoring this crisis in international trade. The longer we ignore it, the more American jobs will move overseas. It's just that simple.

Unfair trade agreements, passed by both Republicans and Democrats, have sent millions of jobs to other countries. We need to stop this hemorrhaging and find ways for American workers to compete in the new market.

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.

It was fairly obvious to anyone who studied the situation that China was dumping bedroom furniture in the U.S. to the detriment of our American workers and manufacturers to gain market access and share.

Protect and foster American industries … Democrats are willing to risk our manufacturing interests in the face of the starving hordes of pauper labor in other countries.

It is the system now called free trade that tends to the destruction of commerce, as is shown wherever it obtains.

Unfettered free trade has led to a disaster.

We ask our companies to restructure; we ask employees to work more for less money because there is overproduction, but then we're unable to defend them from cheaper Chinese imports. We are insane.

President Trump was determined to replace NAFTA from the day he took office. It reflected the old way of trade deals in which our partners shirked labor protections while American companies shipped operations and jobs to cheaper foreign locations. Our factories shuttered, our manufacturing shrank, and we grew more dependent on foreign suppliers.

How does allowing China to constantly rig trade in its favor advance the core conservative goal of making markets more efficient?

We've got tremendous dumping of steel into our country and aluminum into our country - all manner of products being sold in our country at below cost, stealing American jobs or depressing wages.

Likewise, free trade does not, as evidenced in CAFTA, mean fair trade.

Products made in China are cheap through the exploitation of the workforce. Every time we shop, we are driving the nail further into the coffin of American manufacturing jobs.

I'm not for the sort of trade deals that hollow out our standards while they hollow out our middle class and middle class wages.

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

While I believe firmly in open markets and free trade, I also believe an open market needs a level playing field.