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Dear Mr. Jenkins:

Thank you for your recent e-mail message. As your Senator, it is important for me to hear from you. Please accept my apology for the delay in my response.

I understand your concerns about recent job losses, and your concern that they could be the result of trade agreements. You mentioned your concerns about the recent announcement by Maytag Appliances that its will close in Galesburg, Illinois manufacturing facility by the end of 2004.

While the impending closure will not directly impact Maytag employees in Iowa, I am concerned any time American workers are placed at a competitive disadvantage in the international marketplace.

That is why I work to make sure that U.S. workers are competing on a level playing field.( I find this strange, he has it underlined. But he supports Right to Work (for less), and according to the AFL-CIO, he has a less then desirable voting record as our senator, 15% in 2002 and 14% lifetime, on issues that are important too and would effectively level the playing field for working men and women). What we should do, and I have done, is ask him how his voting record "levels the playing field for U.S. workers." E-mail Senator Grassley

It is difficult to point to only one factor why an industry may relocate. For example, some industries that consume steel - such as the appliance industry - have been especially hard hit by tariffs imposed on certain imports of steel in an effort to protect workers in the steel industry. Other workers in the construction industry have bee hurt by U.S. -imposed tariffs aimed at protecting the domestic lumber industry.

I opposed these actions by the Administration, however, because the number of workers in industries that consume steel and lumber in the United States far outweighs the number of workers within the steel and lumber industries themselves. Imposing barriers or other restrictions on the ability of these companies to import raw materials they need to compete could have a lasting detrimental impact on these U.S. companies and their workers.

Of course, it is important that Congress not forget those who have been impacted by trade. You may be interested to know that the Trade Act of 2002, which was signed into law on August 6th, reauthorizes the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) for workers program. This program provides extended unemployment benefits and job training to workers who have lost their jobs as the economy reallocates resources as a result of foreign trade. The Trade Act also reauthorizes the NAFTA Transitional Adjustment Assistance Program (TAAP), which not only aids trade-affected workers but also helps those who lose jobs because their firms have relocated production to Canada or Mexico.

In addition the Trade Act provides an advanceable, refundable tax credit for the purchase of health insurance. The credit is set at 65 percent, uncapped, and can be used to subsidize the cost of company-based or pooled health insurance policies. It can be used for individual insurance in instances where workers had purchased such a policy in the one month prior to job loss.

As the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, the committee which has jurisdiction over the nation's trade policy, you can be assured that I will continue to closely monitor the free trade agreements to which the United States is a party to ensure that the interests of the United States and the state of Iowa continue to be protected. We must ensure that these agreements promote "fair" trade as well as "free" trade.

Again, thank you for contacting me. I appreciate hearing your views and urge you to keep in touch.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Grassley
United States Senator