Sherman: Plan To Continue US Aid To China An 'Insult' To Americans
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A San Fernando Valley lawmaker on Tuesday sided with Congressional critics opposed to sending millions of dollars in U.S. aid to the nation's biggest foreign creditor: China.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) criticized any suggestion that the American taxpayer can afford to provide an estimated $4 million in aid to China to help promote clean energy development, the Associated Press reported.
Sherman told the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asia that the financial feasibility of continued U.S. aid to China is "an insult to the American people", according to the Associated Press.
Beyond the expense, however, panel members expressed concern that continuing to provide aid will make Chinese manufacturers more competitive while costing American manufacturers jobs and revenue.
Sherman recently opposed U.S. trade agreements with South Korea, citing fears that factories along that nation's border could lead firms to hire workers and provide tax breaks for firms in North Korea.
"We can no longer afford to continue on this same path that is eroding our industrial base and hurting American working families," Sherman said. "We must abandon the failed, so-called "free trade" policies of the past and take a new direction."
He also suggested the agreement would enable products manufactured in China to enter the U.S. duty-free via Korean imports.
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