{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=0cd2e601-572c-405c-a521-4efd4797897d", "Rubio Discusses How Trade Benefits American Workers", "2013-12-18", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "FL", "Marco Rubio", "R000595", "www.rubio.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Senator Marco Rubio     Senate Foreign Relations Committee \u2013 Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs Hearing: \u201cRebalance to Asia IV: Economic Engagement in the Asia-Pacific Region\u201d     Washington, D.C.     December 18, 2013     VIDEO: http://youtu.be/utihyhZ76P0  \r\n\u2026\r\n \r\nSenator Marco Rubio: \u201cI wanted to explore, first with you Doctor Scissors, this notion of free trade, and in particular, imports. So, I get resistance from people who believe that free trade is a destroyer of American jobs. Now obviously free trade has to be fair. And there are rules that are important because, as you\u2019ve just described, one scenario, not exactly on point, but you described a scenario that\u2019s a one-way street. Our values of openness have allowed the Chinese to invest here. But when we try to reciprocate, there are all kinds of impediments to that. And that\u2019s always been a challenge for us on multiple fronts, including on the trade front. But in specific, on the issue of imports, there\u2019s this idea that imports into the U.S., in and of themselves, destroy American jobs. But in your written statement, you have outlined why, in fact, that is not potentially the case.\u00a0 That, in fact, there are also jobs created through imports from offloading. Can you just elaborate on that more? Because that\u2019s an issue I get a lot when I go out and talk about the need to expand trade opportunities, not just with Asia, but with the entire world. Can you elaborate a little bit more on the benefits that imports, obviously we want to be able to export too, but the benefits that imports have for American jobs, particularly stable, middle class jobs.\u201d\r\n   \r\n\u2026\r\n \r\nRubio: \u201cSo just to describe the supply chain for this phone for a second. It says here it was innovated, designed in California, but assembled in China. Somebody built this phone over there, and then they had to ship it here. They had to off-load it at a port of entry. Those are American jobs. Then they had to be transported from the port of entry to a distribution center. Again, another set of American jobs. And then from that distribution center, there were jobs there, they were shipped out to the retailers\u2014another group of American jobs. And then at the retail level there\u2019s somebody selling it\u2014another set of American jobs, at the retail level. And then, whoever buys these things is paying less than they normally would, which means whatever money you\u2019re saving on this \u2014 the difference between how much it would have cost to do it somewhere else and do it where it\u2019s happening now, and what you actually pay \u2014 that difference, is now available to spend somewhere else because you didn\u2019t spend it on this. Is that an accurate description of how it plays out?\u201d\r\n   \r\n\u2026\r\n \r\nRubio: \u201cMy guess is that all those jobs down that supply network, that I just described, probably pay better than some of the people that were building this [iPhone].\u201d\r\n   \r\n\u2026\r\n \r\nRubio: \u201cMr. Goodman, in your testimony, you talked about something that I thought was interesting. And that is you said it was until recently popular in Beijing that TPP is part of an effort by Washington to contain China. But in fact, if they decide not to participate in free enterprise, in free commerce, in free navigation, and the benefits of this sort of barrier reductions, that\u2019s a decision they\u2019ve made to contain themselves. Right? My understanding of the region is that most \u2013 if not all \u2013 of the countries would like stronger integration with China, but on a set of rules based on freedom: freedom of commerce and freedom of navigation, and mutual reciprocity on rules, etc. Not on the set of rules that China would like to impose. So really, to the extent that there is anybody excluding anyone, it\u2019s Chinese policymakers that have decided to potentially exclude themselves from this and other arrangements, because they don\u2019t like the rules. The rules they want are actually much more one-sided to the benefit of China, and the detriment of their neighbors and perhaps the rest of the world.\u201d\r\n   \r\n\u2026", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=0cd2e601-572c-405c-a521-4efd4797897d"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5892430674284697, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}