Schaumburg businessman asks Congress for help on trade

WASHINGTON — Jason Speer stood quietly in Rep. Joe Walsh's office, waiting patiently to meet his congressman for the first time. Cradled in his arms was a peculiar golden device.

“This is straight from Schaumburg, Illinois,” Speer said proudly.

When Speer finally joined Walsh and others in the congressman's office Wednesday morning, Speer explained what the odd-looking object was.

It was a float used to regulate water levels and manufactured at Speer's factory in Schaumburg, Quality Float Works Inc. Speer, the company's vice president, ships equipment like this to nations around the world. And because he's been able to trade with these nations, he says, the company's sales have grown by 143 percent over the past seven years and the number of employees has nearly doubled, despite the economic downturn.

“If it wasn't for exporting, I don't think we'd be standing right here,” Speer said.

Speer was in Washington that day representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to tell congressmen about the success story of his family-owned, Schaumburg company and how he believes it and other small businesses like it can continue to succeed – through trade.

Speer testified Wednesday at a hearing before Walsh and the House Committee on Small Business. He, along with three other American small businessmen, said passing pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and Korea would help them create jobs.

Speer said the ability to trade freely with each of these countries would be largely beneficial to his company and help him create jobs.

“They're all very different in nature, but they're all very important,” he said. “Korea has a very large consumer base. There's a huge potential there. Panama really has no manufacturing base and there's a lot of development going on there, and the same with Colombia, so there's a lot of potential.”

While increased ability to export has allowed Quality Float Works to add more jobs, not all of those jobs are in the U.S. As the company has expanded its business in the Middle East and Asia, it opened a new plant in Dubai so it can ship products locally.

Walsh, who built much of his campaign around the plight small businessmen, said it is crucial that these trade agreements be passed, and the sooner the better.

“Each day, month, year that we don't pass them is costing small business men and women,” he said. “Holding hearings like this, putting attention on what they're going through, is the first important step, but we've got to get a positive signal from the president that he's behind this. We really can't do much without his force and his influence.”

That same day, President Barack Obama did release a plan to deal with one free trade agreement – Colombia. Agreements with the nation have yet to go through due to Colombia's poor labor rights and working conditions. Obama's plan outlines a series of actions the Colombian government must take by July 30 to improve these conditions before Congress can pass a trade agreement.

Some Democrats, however, are concerned about the human rights issues. They say the timetable for this plan is too soon and should not be rushed since lives are at stake.

“While we welcome these initiatives, we are particularly concerned that we will not have time to determine whether they have been fully carried out – let alone resulted in a dramatic decrease of violence against unionists, increased ability by Colombian workers to exercise their rights to organize and bargain collectively, and a breaking of the culture of impunity that has so characterized justice and the rule of law in Colombia,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky, of Evanston, said in a joint statement on the subject. “If the goal is to eliminate anti-worker violence and other human rights violations, results matter.”

While the debate continues in Washington, Speer is looking ahead to further expand his company's export business. He just got back from a trip to Chile and Peru, where equipment made by his country to regulate water levels can be used in those nations' mining industries. Pending the outlook of the trade agreements, Speer is hoping to take a trip to Panama in May to find markets there.

Speer also hopes to give Walsh a tour of his Schaumburg factory soon. Speer said he had developed a good relationship with Walsh's predecessor, former Congresswoman Melissa Bean, who Speer said was very good with the trade-related issues he is so passionate about.