Pence swings by Franklin County crane facility to push NAFTA replacement

• Katie Meyer
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  Katie Meyer was WITF’s Capitol Bureau Chief from 2016-2020. While at WITF, she covered all things state politics for public radio stations throughout Pennsylvania. Katie came to Harrisburg by way of New York City, where she worked at Fordham University’s public radio station, WFUV, as an anchor, general assignment reporter, and co-host of an original podcast. A 2016 graduate of Fordham, she earned several awards for her work at WFUV, including four 2016 Gracies.
  
  Katie is a native New Yorker, though she originally hails from Troy, a little farther up the Hudson River. She can attest that the bagels are still pretty good there.
  
  WITF's Capitol Bureau Chief Desk is partially funded through generous gifts made in the memory of Tony May through the Anthony J. May Memorial Fund.
  
  For more information about Tony May, click here.

 Katie Meyer / WITF

Vice President Mike Pence got a tour of a crane manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019.

(Harrisburg) — A crane company had a chance to show off its southcentral Pennsylvania operation to a high-profile guest Thursday morning: Vice President Mike Pence.

Pence made the trip to the important swing state to pitch the administration’s proposed replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement.

As a singer entertained employees outside the Manitowoc Crane Group’s manufacturing facility in Franklin County, just north of the Maryland border, Pence took a tour.

Katie Meyer / WITF

Vice President Mike Pence sits in a crane cab during a tour of the Manitowoc Crane Group facility in Pennsylvania Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019.

He inspected crane parts, heard about the manufacturing process, and climbed inside the cab of one machine.

He’d chosen the Manitowoc plant for a specific reason.

It was, he said, “great to be here at the country’s only American-owned and American-produced crane company.”

Pence touched on environmental issues–saying the “war on coal is over” under President Donald Trump, and calling the Democrats who support increasing green energy subsidies “radical.”

But his main point was on trade.

Pence is promoting the administration’s U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, which would replace NAFTA.

It’s designed to push manufacturing back to the U.S. through provisions like mandatory higher wages for autoworkers. And the vice president is using Manitowoc as a symbol of what the administration’s hoping will happen under the proposed deal.

“This company has invested nearly $50 million in the last three years alone, and hired more than 350 new workers right at this site,” he said.

Katie Meyer / WITF

Vice President Mike Pence got a tour of a crane manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019.

The deal has made some progress in the Democratic-controlled Congress–though leaders have said they don’t think it has strong enough enforcement mechanisms.

They’ve also pushed for stronger environmental protections, and say they’re concerned it might allow pharmaceutical companies to drastically hike prices for certain treatments.

This is Pence’s second trip to Pennsylvania to push the USMCA. In June, he visited a robotics maker in York County to make a similar point about the value of domestic manufacturing.

The commonwealth is considered a key state for Trump in the upcoming 2020 election.

He unexpectedly won it in 2016, but his margin was narrow–just 0.72 percent of a point.

Sometimes, your mornings are just too busy to catch the news beyond a headline or two. Don’t worry. The Morning Agenda has got your back. Each weekday morning, host Tim Lambert will keep you informed, amused, enlightened and up-to-date on what’s happening in central Pennsylvania and the rest of this great commonwealth.

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