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1
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, It is in our society's best interest to protect
3 the health, safety and standard of living of its citizens; and
 
4     WHEREAS, Too many of us have directly experienced or know
5 about the consequences of our flawed trade system: massive job
6 losses, devastated communities and staggering national
7 deficits; and
 
8     WHEREAS, The price of cheap imports is too expensive when
9 those imports unfairly take away millions of jobs, outsource
10 production and lower our quality of life by lowering wages,
11 harming the environment and now even threatening our very
12 health and safety; and
 
13     WHEREAS, Not only have cheap imports from bad trade deals
14 lowered our living standards here but cheap and toxic imports
15 also harm workers and the environment in developing countries
16 like China, where workers often toil in dangerous, sweatshop
17 conditions; and
 
18     WHEREAS, Our markets have been overflowing with an influx
19 of harmful products like toxic toys, defective passenger tires,
20 poisoned pet-foods and other tainted goods, in particular from
21 countries like China, where there are few, if any, effective

 

 

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1 labor, environmental or health and safety standards; and
 
2     WHEREAS, The current Administration has failed to
3 adequately enforce health, safety, labor or environmental
4 standards on imported products that may cause harm to the
5 American public and has not adequately addressed the risk of
6 such harm by requiring importers to show that they have
7 sufficient financial resources to cover the costs of product
8 recalls and the damages caused to the public resulting from
9 defective products that they bring into the United States; and
 
10     WHEREAS, The current Administration has failed to
11 adequately enforce our trade laws to protect our jobs and
12 communities from the devastating consequences of imports from
13 developing countries like China who do not play by fair
14 competition rules; therefore, be it
 
15     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
16 NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE
17 SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that we implore the United States
18 Congress to meaningfully address the unsafe toxic imports that
19 threaten our families and communities; and be it further
 
20     RESOLVED, That corporations producing and importing
21 products should be held accountable if they place greater value
22 on profits over the health and safety of our families and

 

 

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1 communities, and at the expense of our jobs, labor and
2 environmental standards and our living standards; and be it
3 further
 
4     RESOLVED, That tougher trade laws are needed to prevent the
5 further loss of American jobs and the further erosion of our
6 standard of living; and be it further
 
7     RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be delivered to
8 the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, the Minority
9 Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United
10 States House of Representatives, the Minority Leader of the
11 United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
12 our State's congressional delegation.