Top Dem: Trade bill not for big business

A top Democratic senator on Sunday said a trade pact working its way through Congress is “extraordinarily important”

{mosads}“I want to straighten one thing out, and that is that most people think this is a bill for corporate America,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein said on ABC’s “This Week.” “In California, 95 percent of the trade is carried out by companies and business of less than 500 people.”

Feinstein called the legislation “a very good bill.”

“I do support the trade bill and I’ll tell you why: I’m a born-and-raised Californian on the rim of the largest trading basin the world. Nothing is going to decrease the trade between countries along the Pacific Ocean. It surpassed the Atlantic several years ago,” Feinstein said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“Therefore the kind of trade, free trade, the ability to have enforcement mechanisms to prevent anti-dumping, to protect copyright, to prevent forced labor, child labor is very important,” she added. “And that’s what this will do.”

“The enforcement section and the trade assistance section, which passed the Senate with more than 70 votes, is vital to this.”

Feinstein also said Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who’s been criticized for dodging the debate on the issue, should “take a good look” at the measure.