DAYTON, Ore. — With French barrels, Spanish corks, German machinery and the rich volcanic soil covering these hills, Alex Sokol Blosser makes some of the world’s finest pinot noir at his family’s winery.
And the world knows it: Sokol Blosser sells a fifth of his wine abroad, in Canada, Europe and, increasingly, Asia.
He believes he will sell even more bottles of his Dundee Hills Pinot Noir should the complex international trade framework known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership win approval in Congress. But the emphasis is on BELIEVES.
“I’m not going to lie to you. I don’t know what the hell is in the TPP, and I don’t know if anyone else knows what the hell’s in the TPP,” Sokol Blosser said Thursday. “But I’m making a leap of faith that it’s going to be good.”
That blind faith earned Sokol Blosser a public shout-out from President Obama the next day, when the president talked about the trade proposal at Nike’s corporate headquarters in nearby Beaverton. It’s also part of why Obama chose Oregon to begin his final push to win congressional authority to finalize the TPP and other potential trade agreements.
Democrats elsewhere have been mostly unwilling to extend Obama the benefit of the doubt on trade, citing the secrecy and uncertainty surrounding the TPP and what they consider inadequate protections for American labor, environmental and legal standards. But deep-blue Oregon has come to occupy a special role in the latest national debate over the benefits and perils of free trade, with most of its congressional delegation backing Obama because of the regional economy’s dependence on it.
The legislation that would pave the way for approval of the trade pact was negotiated in large part by Ron Wyden, the state’s Democratic senior senator. Of the 20 to 25 House Democrats whom Obama will need to support the legislation, three votes will come from Oregonians.
The future of the American economy, in other words, can be seen in Oregon. Where the early 1990s debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement centered on Rust Belt manufacturing jobs, trade proponents this time are trying to steer the argument away from big industrial and manufacturing jobs, which have been decimated by the North American Free Trade Agreement. Instead, they are highlighting agricultural exporters and niche manufacturers.
“Oregon is sort of a microcosm of the opportunities,” Wyden said last week. “We are a big ag state, we’re a major tech state, we’re leaders in manufacturing, we’ve got it all. … We’re the face of the opportunity to grow more good-paying jobs.”
In large part, it is Oregon’s trade in non-commodity goods — whether pinot noirs or the most fashionable sneakers or some of the most advanced microprocessors — that have made its businesses and politicians so sanguine about the deal.
Puralytics, a 10-employee firm in Beaverton, makes nanotechnology-based water purifiers, mostly for the export market. Lowering double-digit tariffs and harmonizing product certifications under the TPP, President Mark Owen said, could get its life-saving and life-easing SolarBags in more markets faster and cheaper.
And from Tigard, about 10 miles from Nike, Stash Tea sells half a billion bags of tea — 20 percent of it abroad. Tariffs and trade rules, chief executive Tom Lisicki said, keep many of its teas out of global markets.
Stash’s Orange Spice flavor, for instance, can’t be sold in Australia — the orange peel in it can’t get past customs, because of a ban on imported citrus. And ingredient and labeling restrictions can mean that only a few of Stash’s 40-plus flavors can be sold in some countries.
The TPP — which would affect trade with Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam — would help with that, Lisicki said.
