[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 139 (Thursday, September 29, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 29, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                             {time}   1030
 
                          A VOTE AGAINST GATT

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I congratulate Senator Hollings for his 
decision to slow down the GATT--a new world trade agreement that is the 
culmination of nearly 15 years of radical free-trade-at-any-price 
policies that have run up more than $1 trillion in trade deficits and 
made the United States the world's largest debtor nation.
  All we hear is that this GATT lowers tariffs. If that is all it did, 
I might support it. But it goes much further than that.
  This GATT creates a new world trade organization--a United Nations of 
trade--except the United States will have no veto power. The tiny 
nation of Rwanda will have exactly the same vote and same power in this 
organization that we will.
  A panel of three unelected trade bureaucrats will decide 
international trade disputes in secret sessions, without any 
possibility of appeal.
  GATT puts every one of our Federal, State, and local laws on the 
table. If they are challenged as unfair trade barriers, a secret 
tribunal could order massive trade sanctions against our products and 
our markets until Congress changed those laws.
  U.S. food safety standards could be challenged as unfair trade 
barriers. U.S. consumers could be forced to accept foreign foods that 
contain pesticide residues that are illegal under our laws.
  U.S. environmental laws--like our automobile mileage standards will 
be overturned and protections for dolphins and other wildlife--have 
already been successfully challenged.
  The Japanese Government has already said it will challenge our ban on 
the export of logs from our national forests as an unfair trade 
barrier. Many State and local laws, like Oregon's bottle bill, could be 
challenged.
  Under the new GATT, faceless trade bureaucrats in Switzerland would 
aim trade sanctions against our markets that would put huge costs on 
U.S. consumers--until Congress changed those laws.
  And finally, Mr. Speaker, this GATT is a $40 billion budget buster. 
And to pay for it, the Clinton administration is resorting to gimmicks 
that would make Ronald Reagan blush.
  Senator Hollings is right. Give the American people and the Congress 
a few months to read the fine print before Congress signs on the bottom 
line.
  Send this turkey back to the white House for Thanksgiving and give 
the American people a break.

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