Rep. Andy Biggs is urging President Donald Trump to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement today. At the same time, Sen. Jeff Flake is urging Arizonans to defend the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
The Paris Agreement to address climate change internationally entered into force on November 4, 2016 and has been accepted by 112 parties, including the United States and the European Union.
Since it went into effect on January 1, 1994, NAFTA created a $181 billion U.S. trade deficit with NAFTA partners Mexico and Canada. Over 1 million jobs were lost, and illegal immigration from Mexico doubled.
“I was heartened to hear last week that President Trump did not succumb to pressures from other G7 nations to endorse the Paris Climate Agreement. In 2016, then-candidate Trump campaigned to prioritize American interests and vowed to cancel the United States’ involvement in the international accord, stating that the “agreement gives foreign bureaucrats control over how much energy we use right here in America.” He was exactly right, and I trust he will follow through with his promise,” said Biggs in a statement released Wednesday.
“The Paris Climate Agreement was conceived without consent from the U.S. Senate and is another example of President Obama’s prolific assault on American energy production. The agreement increases onerous, job-killing regulations and commits billions of American taxpayer dollars to the Green Climate Fund. It also obligates the United States to adhere to specific targets to reduce emissions, but lacks true accountability for other nations to uphold their parts of the agreement,” continued Biggs.
“It is time for the United States of America to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. Doing so would roll back many of the previous administration’s burdensome regulations that have stifled job creation and economic productivity and restore American sovereignty.” Biggs Concluded, “I hope President Trump continues this trend with his impending decision on the accord.”
In April, Rep. Paul Gosar called on the White House to completely withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, calling it unconstitutional.
|
“President Trump ran his campaign on the idea of putting America’s interests first. He can fulfill that pledge in a big way by using his authority to completely withdraw the United States from the misguided Paris Climate Agreement. This unconstitutional treaty is nothing more than an extension of the Obama Administration’s ideological war on affordable energy. This liberal pipedream abdicates our sovereignty in favor of a global redistribution of wealth. Furthermore, this scheme was designed to favor our economic rivals like China and India by giving them until 2030 to reduce emissions while the United States front-loaded our costs at the expense of American jobs,” Gosar said in a statement released in April.
“President Obama had to pull off Olympic-level legal gymnastics to mislead Americans into thinking the Paris Agreement wasn’t a treaty because he knew this charade would never pass the U.S. Senate. Spending nearly a trillion dollars per year to reduce the global average temperature in 2100 by a third of one degree defies common sense and is a terrible business decision. Thankfully, we have a new deal-maker in the White House who puts America first. It’s time to put this bad deal to bed once and for all,” said Gosar.
Flake, who is expected to struggle in the Republican Primary, is relying on taxpayer money and a gimmick to push NAFTA. On Wednesday, Flake announced the launch of NAFTA4AZ. His self-promoting initiative will “gather personal stories from Arizonans whose lives have been positively impacted by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA4AZ aims to engage Arizonans in the effort to highlight NAFTA’s critical role in supporting jobs, opportunity, and economic growth in Arizona as the administration prepares to begin renegotiating the agreement this summer.”
Trump has agreed to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement rather than terminate it.