INDIANAPOLIS – When Congressman Rokita criticized Rep. Braun in last month’s primary debate for displacing American workers by selling foreign auto parts from Asia for his distributing business, he forgot that he’d repeatedly shown support for the exact trade policies that would have allowed cheap Asian goods to flood the auto market nationwide.

Congressman Rokita has a record of supporting trade deals that allow China to rig the system against the United States with cheap goods that drive down wages. In fact, Congressman Rokita voted repeatedly to consider the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the massive, pan-Asian free trade agreement that could have served as a backdoor agreement with China. He repeatedly supported “fast track” proposals which would require Congress to relinquish its constitutional authority to oversee trade deals in order to rush the trade deal through.

Members of the TPP at the time included Mexico and Japan, both of which would have been able to threaten Indiana’s auto industry by flooding the U.S. market with cheap automobiles and auto parts. The deal’s weak “Rules of Origin” requirements meant that many saw the deal as a backdoor trade deal with China, and that Asian nations would be able to ship cars made up primarily of cheap Chinese parts to the United States.

Just a few years later, however, Congressman Rokita ignored his TPP record and stood on a debate stage last month to attack Rep. Braun for selling those same Chinese parts.

This release is part of Trade Madness, a three-week long series in which the IDP is highlighting Congressmen Messer’s and Rokita’s and Rep. Braun’s mad record of supporting disastrous trade deals and policies that make it easier to ship Hoosier jobs overseas.

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