[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 118 (Tuesday, September 9, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H7112-H7116]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       FAST TRACK TRADE AUTHORITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Granger). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 7, 1997, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Brown] is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I begin my 60 minutes by yielding 
to the gentleman from Cooperstown, NY [Mr. Boehlert].


                A Tribute to Richie ``Whitey'' Ashburn.

  Mr. BOEHLERT. Madam Speaker, I pause in these deliberations to give 
some well-deserved recognition.
  Madam Speaker, it is with great sadness that I rise to announce the 
passing of baseball Hall-of-Famer Richie Ashburn. Richie Ashburn was my 
first boyhood hero when he began his career with the Utica Blue Sox 
back in 1945.
  Mr. Ashburn played center field, primarily with the Philadelphia 
Phillies from 1948 to 1962. Ashburn became the starting center fielder 
in 1948, after the incumbent and previous year's batting champion, 
Harry ``The Hat'' Walker, broke his foot in spring training. By the 
time Walker was ready to return, Ashburn had won the job by hitting 
.348 and was the only rookie named to that year's All-Star game.

  Ashburn finished the year hitting .333 and led the league with 32 
stolen bases and was named by the Sporting News as rookie of the year. 
In his 15-year career, Ashburn hit .300 or better nine times, won two 
batting titles, and finished with a lifetime batting average of .308. 
Despite these impressive hitting numbers, Ashburn was best known for 
his fielding skills. He set new records by recording 500 or more 
putouts in 4 different seasons and 400 or more putouts in 9 different 
seasons.
  He tied a major league record by leading the league in that category 
nine times. He was in some very distinguished company. The only ones 
who did better were Max Carey, Willie Mays, Tris Speaker, and Ty Cobb.
  In 1962, Ashburn's final season, he became an original member of the 
New York Mets and was the Mets' first All-Star. He finished his career 
with six All-Star appearances and a World Series appearance with the 
1950 Phillies pennant-winning team that was affectionately known as the 
Whiz Kids. Ashburn continues to hold that Phillies record for 
consecutive games played at 731.
  After retiring, Ashburn considered running for public office, but I 
think he thought better of it, in his home State of Nebraska. Instead 
he began a career as a broadcaster for the Phillies where he remained 
until his death.

[[Page H7113]]

  For many years Richie Ashburn's talents were overshadowed by other 
outfielders like Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider and Willie Mays. But 
finally, in 1995, he received well-deserved recognition. He was elected 
to the Baseball Hall of Fame in my district in Cooperstown, NY. We have 
not only lost a tremendous player but a great ambassador for the game 
of baseball. May he rest in peace.
  I thank my distinguished colleague for pausing in these important 
deliberations to let me share this sad news with the rest of my 
colleagues in this House.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New 
York. I would add, before getting into perhaps a more serious subject 
than the Baseball Hall of Fame, my daughters and I drove to Cooperstown 
this summer. My younger daughter thought there were too many New York 
Yankee memorabilia in the Hall of Fame. I think she was raised right, 
that she thinks that. Nonetheless, it was a great trip to your 
district, to Cooperstown. I had been in the Hall of Fame when I was my 
daughter's age, when I was 13 or 14. I had not been back in 30 some 
years. It was a great chance to be in your district and see Cooperstown 
again.
  Tomorrow the President will announce fast track to his legislation he 
will present to Congress tomorrow to expand the North American Free-
Trade Agreement; ultimately, he hopes, to the rest of Latin America. 
Before he does that, before we talk about fast track, I am joined 
tonight by my friend from Michigan, who has been a real leader in the 
effort, everything from food safety to jobs to the environment to clean 
water, all of these trade issues, before we get into fast track, let us 
back up a moment and look at what this expansion of NAFTA means and 
what NAFTA itself has meant and other trade agreements in the last few 
years in this institution.
  First of all, bad trade deals hurt America's working families. They 
threaten to move American jobs to low wage countries, as we have 
already seen under NAFTA, with jobs fleeing to Mexico. We are importing 
under NAFTA 10 times as many cars from Mexico as we are exporting. But 
it is not just auto workers that have lost jobs. We have lost jobs in 
the electronic industry and in other high-wage sectors.
  Where I come from, as in most places in this country, NAFTA, simply 
put, is a bad deal. These bad trade deals threaten America's economic 
future.
  The same people that brought us NAFTA want to use something called 
fast track to expand NAFTA, to expand NAFTA to countries, other 
countries in Latin America, beginning with Chile and moving up and down 
the South and Central American continent and into Central America.
  I think all of us want equal trade and want fair trade, but we do not 
want this kind of free trade that fast track will bring us.
  After 44 months, NAFTA simply has not panned out. It has meant job 
losses in the auto and electronic sectors to Mexico. It has meant 
record amounts of illegal drugs. Now it means threats to food safety 
and truck safety. Everybody wants open markets for American goods. 
Exports create jobs, no doubt about that. But imports claim jobs.
  If only exports counted, we would not have the kind of massive trade 
deficit we have. This institution, in the last couple, really in the 
last 5 or 6 years, since the initial Clinton budget in 1993, has dealt 
with one of the twin deficits. We have dealt with the budget deficit. 
At the same time we have let the trade deficit get larger and larger 
and larger.
  Sure, we have exported more goods to countries around the world, but 
the number of dollar's worth of imported goods to this country has 
mushroomed, causing huge trade deficits. We need to get tough with 
these countries that keep out American goods.
  Japan still is not playing fair with the United States. The Japanese 
Government drags its feet on the framework agreement of autos and auto 
parts. Even the administration is concerned about this problem.
  Our trade deficit with China, brought on in part by most favored 
nation status that we continue for reasons beyond my understanding to 
give to China, even our trade deficit with China has become larger now 
than our trade deficit with Japan, because the Chinese have a perverse 
concept of fair trade.
  With equal trade and fair trade, we can open foreign markets without 
dropping our defenses. We need to call a time-out on free trade. And 
fast track, especially, is an abdication of the responsibility that all 
of us have in this institution to negotiate fair trade agreements, to 
negotiate democratic trade agreements, to negotiate trade agreements 
that protect the environment, protect food safety, ensure truck safety 
and ensure that Americans have an equal footing in the global 
marketplace and the global work force.
  Perhaps one of the most unknown but most important problems with 
NAFTA is that specific issue of food safety. In an effort to increase 
trade with Mexico, NAFTA has limited border inspections of food, both 
for vegetables and fruits, frozen and fresh, and allowed Mexican trucks 
to enter the United States with limited inspection. As a result, NAFTA 
is directly responsible for a significant increase in the imports of 
contaminated food into the United States from Mexico.
  These lax inspection practices contributed to a sharp increase in 
food imports from Mexico. Imports of Mexican fruit have increased 45 
percent. Imports of Mexican vegetables have increased 31 percent. More 
than 70 percent of these imports are carried into the United States on 
trucks.

                              {time}  2245

  Yet we inspect only 1 out of 100 trucks and 1 out of 100 truckloads 
that come into this country. That means huge numbers of unsafe Mexican 
trucks are driving on American highways; it means large amounts of 
Mexican fruits and vegetables are consumed by the American people, 
especially American children, that have come across the border. And 
many of those foodstuffs simply are not healthy.
  We are proposing, several of us are proposing to prevent similar 
kinds of incidents that my friend from Michigan will talk about with 
Michigan schoolchildren that contracted hepatitis by eating tainted 
Mexican strawberries.
  We are suggesting three things: that we renegotiate the provisions in 
NAFTA which relate to border inspections and food safety and ensure 
that any future requests for fast track authority include strong food 
safety provisions;
  Second, we should increase the funding for border inspections or 
limit the increasing rate of food imports to ensure the safety of our 
food supply; and
  Third, we should begin an aggressive program to label all foodstuffs, 
including fresh and frozen vegetables, fresh and frozen fruits, 
vegetables and meats with their country of origin so American 
consumers, when they go to the grocery store, will know where these 
foods were grown, where these foods were processed, to give additional 
information similar to the food labels that we are used to seeing on 
our cans of soup and other products in this country.
  I think we must work with President Clinton to address these serious 
deficiencies in our trade policy. We should not move so quickly on fast 
track. We need to back up, look at NAFTA, examine the problems with 
NAFTA, paying special notice and special attention to food safety.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend from Michigan, Mr. Stupak.
  Mr. STUPAK. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Brown] 
for yielding to me.
  The safety and security of our Nation's food supply that has recently 
been in the news because of contamination of the Hudson plant in 
Nebraska, but the gentleman and I both sit on the Health and 
Environment Subcommittee of the full Committee on Commerce, and we have 
watched over the last few years especially what has happened to food 
safety in this country.
  If we take a look at the Hudson plant situation, over 20 million 
pounds of beef was recalled by the company because it was determined 
that this meat was contaminated with the deadly E. coli virus. In 
response, we have a bill sent up to the Hill here last week by 
Secretary of Agriculture Mr. Glickman, who wants more authority to 
inspect and take action against meat and poultry factories.

[[Page H7114]]

  So if we take a look at what is going on here in this country, we are 
demanding more authority by the Secretary of Agriculture because he is 
concerned about the safety and security of our Nation's food supply. 
But what we are saying here tonight is that the concern for safety and 
security of our Nation's food supply must extend to NAFTA and to any 
other fast track agreement that we may be presented with.
  As the gentleman mentioned, the President is preparing once again to 
ask Congress to delegate broad trade negotiating authority to him, and 
we still have many arguments not only to the economic effects of NAFTA, 
but also as regards NAFTA's undermining the food safety in this 
country. There is no discussion to engage in to fix it, on how to fix 
this growing problem that threatens the well-being of every American 
family.
  So I appreciate the gentleman's efforts here and we have come out 
here tonight to start alerting the American public that this fast track 
authority will be here. There is a major concern about food safety in 
this Nation. The Secretary of Agriculture has pinpointed it, but when 
we take a look at it, when we take a look at what has really happened 
since the passage of NAFTA, Mexican imports to the United States are up 
82 percent and nearly 70 percent of these imports come across the 
United States border by trucks.
  In May 1977, the General Accounting Office released a study of the 
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's efforts to minimize the 
risks to agriculture from pests and disease from entering the United 
States. This General Accounting Office report states that NAFTA and the 
political muscle from the supporters have, and I quote now, ``have put 
pressure on these inspectors to carry out the increased inspection 
responsibilities more quickly.''
  In other words, go ahead and inspect, but they have to do it much 
more quickly, because if we take a look at it, 12,000 trucks per day, 
12,000 crossing from Mexico into the United States, carrying fruits and 
vegetables and meat. So that is a total of 3.3 million trucks coming 
into this country carrying poultry and vegetables and meat into the 
United States, and only 1 percent, 1 percent of 3.3 million, are 
actually being inspected. And then when they are inspected, there is 
pressure to do it quickly, to move them along.
  Again let me quote from the GAO. The GAO said, quote, ``At the 
Mexican border crossing, with the heaviest passenger vehicle volume in 
the country, a supervisory inspector said the staff was inspecting less 
than one-tenth of 1 percent, less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the 
passenger vehicle traffic because the volume is so high.''
  So if they are not even inspecting cars, how are they going to 
inspect these large trucks? And, again, 12,000 per day enter the United 
States.
  Most of the ports visited by the GAO investigators who were doing 
this report said that the inspection program could not keep up with the 
increasing demand. Due to the heavy workloads, inspectors do not 
conduct complete inspections, allowing possibly unsafe products into 
the United States. And they said, quote, ``Because of staffing 
shortages, one work unit alone at the U.S. Mexican border can provide 
inspection coverage of a busy pedestrian crossing for less than 8 hours 
in an 18-hour port operation a day.'' So that means that not even 50 
percent of the time is there someone there to even do the inspections.
  This increased traffic, as the gentleman has indicated, has caused 
outbreaks of disease in the United States. After passage of NAFTA in 
1993, let us just take a look at what happened.
  In 1993, NAFTA was passed. The rate of hepatitis A in the border 
region rose 2\1/2\ times greater than the U.S. national average. This 
is in the border communities. In fact, in Maverick, TX, the rate of 
hepatitis A doubled from 5.3 times in 1993 to over 10.3 in just 1 year, 
in 1994.
  Webb County, that is El Paso County and Cameron County, they all had 
at least 2-, almost a 3-percent increase, or 2 to 3 times doubling the 
rate of hepatitis A in Texas.
  Each year we have about 130 cases of hepatitis A identified even in 
Michigan. The gentleman mentioned Michigan and the strawberries. We had 
130 cases of hepatitis A identified in Calhoun County, MI, because of 
illegally imported strawberries from Mexico.
  Now, not only did it come from Mexico and it was not inspected, but 
we already have a law on the books which says that in the school lunch 
program we cannot use agricultural goods grown in another country, 
bring them in the United States and put them into the U.S. agriculture 
food program. So as we can see, even the laws we had prior to and since 
NAFTA have not increased the safety of our Nation's food supplies to 
make sure they are safe and secure for all of us.
  So when we take a look at it, overall NAFTA, and especially the food 
safety, certainly has been a disaster.
  Besides the increased flow of traffic of foods, there is evidence 
that Mexican fruit have high levels of illegal pesticides. On studies 
performed by the environmental working group using data before and 
after NAFTA, 42 different fruits and vegetables, which comprise 96 to 
83 percent of all the fruits and vegetables coming into this country, 
they found that the imported crops from Mexico have very high rates of 
illegal pesticides, including strawberries.
  This is a violation rate of like 18.4 percent. Lettuce from Mexico is 
at 15.6 percent violation, and carrots are at 12.3 percent. These are 
staples in the American diet, carrots and lettuce and strawberries, and 
we have an average here of about 15 percent of it coming into this 
country violating U.S. law because of illegal pesticides.
  Illegal pesticides were under-reported actually by the FDA on crops 
from Mexico, where this environmental working group felt it was much 
higher.
  Certainly, the strawberry has drawn a lot of attention, especially 
because it occurred in my State of Michigan; and at the time, while the 
administration, through Secretary Glickman, is here pushing us for more 
and more regulation of meats and poultry and continuing to raise 
concerns, and rightfully so, about the pesticide safety in this 
country, those who are in favor of this new fast track authority, they 
want to make it easier for unsafe food to come into this country.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. If I may interrupt the gentleman, I think that is 
exactly the point that all of us support, all of us on both sides of 
this debate, those of us that oppose fast track and oppose these carte 
blanche free trade agreements, all of us support expanded trade between 
the United States and other countries as long as that trade is done 
right.
  But if we back up to the gentleman's illustration from 1993, when 
NAFTA passed in November of that year, we simply, as a legislative body 
and as a Nation, were not prepared, nor did the administration and the 
leaders in the pro-NAFTA movement really plan to be ready for the 
increased border traffic. There was no way that at the Mexican-United 
States border, in those days or since, that they could be ready, that 
we as a Nation, that our Customs officials could be ready to inspect 
the huge number of trucks, increased truck traffic coming into the 
United States.
  As the gentleman said, 1 percent of the thousands and thousands and 
thousands of trucks that cross that border every week, only 1 percent 
of them are inspected, and of those that are inspected, about half of 
them fail the safety inspection.
  On top of that is what those trucks are actually carrying when they 
come across the border. In many cases, they are carrying, as the 
gentleman said, fruits and vegetables, fresh and frozen foods and meats 
and other kinds of products, and we simply have not been able to keep 
up with those inspections.
  I think it goes to the whole idea of free trade that as we in this 
country believe in a free enterprise system with certain regulations. 
We have clean air laws, we have safe drinking water laws, we have 
worker safety laws, we have pure food laws in these trade agreements. 
We encourage trade agreements, but they should have worker safety laws 
and environmental laws and clean air laws and safe drinking water laws 
and pure food safety laws.
  It is exactly the same thing we want for our own manufacturers and 
our own producers; we want food safety, we want good food quality 
inspection and good food quality safety laws. When we negotiate trade 
laws with other countries, we want those same kinds of protections 
built in for people in this country that are consuming those

[[Page H7115]]

fruits and vegetables and meats from other countries.
  It is not asking much. That is why a lot of us in the institution 
will oppose giving the President fast track authority to negotiate 
trade agreements that do not have food safety as part of them.
  I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.
  Mr. STUPAK. If I may cut in here, the gentleman and I both have a 
letter that was going to the President in which we are asking him to 
include very specific food safety provisions in his fast track 
proposal.
  This really is not a trade issue. It is really a safety issue.
  What we are asking here, while Secretary Glickman says we have to do 
more things in this country, let us make sure that these provisions and 
regulations we are going to put out for our producers and growers and 
poultry and meat plants in this country also apply to goods and 
services. Especially when it concerns our health, meat and poultry and 
vegetables and fruits, let us apply those same standards in our trade 
agreements. Isn't that only fair?
  When we take a look at it, and if we study NAFTA, whether it is 
chapter 7 or 9, which talks about inspection of trucks, if we put kind 
of a standard out there, the first thing people say is we are putting 
up a trade barrier, we are putting up trade barriers. Let us have fair 
trade, but let us have a level trading position here and make sure our 
safety standards are not compromised. That is the least we should 
expect from these agreements, because it does threaten the well-being 
of every American family.
  There is no doubt that NAFTA has been a direct cause of threats to 
our communities and our health and our safety. The NAFTA rules securing 
investment in Mexico was actually lowering the few existing tariffs and 
quotas that are directly responsible for the new wave of NAFTA imports.
  So if we take a look again at NAFTA, chapter 7, which limits the 
border inspections of food and similar items in NAFTA, and then take a 
look at chapter 9, which opens the border to Mexican trucks, with 
limited inspection, how about the trucks themselves? Are they safe to 
be on our highways, 12,000 trucks a day? Do the people driving those 
trucks have the qualifications and credentials, the chauffeur license, 
as we know it in this country? Being a former State trooper, I am 
concerned about that.
  Really the bottom line here is that while many consumer and health 
groups that opposed NAFTA in 1993 feared, NAFTA is threatening the 
public health and safety; and the government inspection systems that 
were charged with guaranteeing our health and safety, they just have 
not been followed through. They have not been followed; in fact, we 
have been overwhelmed.

                              {time}  2300

  If we take a look at the May 1997 General Accounting Office report, 
certainly the border inspection documentation is alarming. We are not 
doing it. We are not doing a good job. When 1 percent of 3.3 million 
trucks coming over from Mexico are actually inspected and then there is 
pressure on them to do it quickly, what about the other 99 percent that 
are coming in and are not being inspected? Is the truck being 
inspected? Are the contents being inspected? Is the driver being 
inspected? Is there any kind of test given to him as to whether he is 
under the influence of any kind of alcohol, drug or whatever other kind 
of chemical or substance that may be used at the time. I would 
certainly hope that as we begin this debate on fast track, and I am 
here to talk about the food safety issue and I appreciate the help of 
the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Brown] and leadership in this as we sit on 
the Subcommittee on Health and Environment. We have watched this unveil 
for the last 3, 4, 5 years, that while we demand more of our own 
country as far as inspecting food, meats, fish, and poultry as 
Secretary Glickman wants more authority to do that and to take action, 
should that same action not be taken about food, meat, poultry, and 
vegetables coming into this country? It is an issue of safety, it is an 
issue of security for our families, it is an issue of fairness, it is 
an issue of free trade, but fair trade. We certainly are calling upon 
the President to make sure that food safety is number one paramount in 
any kind of fast track extension. Remember that under fast track, while 
we give the President great power and actually Congress delegates broad 
negotiating authority to the President and his advisers in this area, 
we do not have an opportunity then when it comes back before this House 
floor to put on an amendment for food safety, to put on an amendment 
for increased truck safety, to put on an amendment that says at least 
50 percent of all trucks would be inspected and thoroughly inspected. 
It is either an all-or-nothing vote. We either accept it or reject it. 
So unfortunately, and I say that even though I opposed NAFTA in 1993, 
it is unfortunate what we have seen. They have been overwhelmed by 
trucks and vehicle traffic moving across here, and we are beginning to 
see whether you are in Michigan, California and especially Texas with 
the doubling and tripling of hepatitis A, the great threat it is to the 
health of this Nation and to our families.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. In summary, I appreciate the gentleman from 
Michigan joining me tonight on this special order. We have seen the 
results of NAFTA since 1993. We have seen job loss, we have seen huge 
trade deficits with Mexico, we have seen problems with truck safety, we 
have seen problems with food safety, we have seen more illegal drugs 
going across the Mexican border into the United States. With all of 
that, I think it is particularly important that we stop and get NAFTA 
right before expanding it into ever increasing numbers of countries. 
There are too many problems that too many newspapers, too many radio 
stations, too many citizens, magazines, Members of Congress, elected 
officials all over the country, too many problems that all of us have 
pointed out with the North American Free Trade Agreement to just in a 
halfhearted sort of way to continue to expand NAFTA into countries like 
Chile, Argentina and all over.
  Madam Speaker, I would add in closing that we again are asking for 
three changes in NAFTA so that we can get it right before we continue 
this discussion of expanding NAFTA. One, that we renegotiate the 
provisions in NAFTA which relate to border inspections and food safety 
and ensure that any future requests for fast track authority includes 
strong food safety provisions, that we increase funding for border 
inspections or limit the increasing rate of food imports to ensure the 
safety of our food supply in this country which has come a long way in 
the last 50, 75, 100 years in ensuring a good quality food supply for 
all of our Nation's citizens; and, third, that we begin an aggressive 
campaign to label all foodstuffs, fresh and frozen fruits, vegetables 
and meats with their country of origin so that American consumers know 
where in fact these fruits and vegetables and meats, where they came 
from, where they were grown, where they were processed, where they were 
produced. All of us I think should pledge ourselves to these three 
changes in NAFTA so once we can fix NAFTA, once we can make NAFTA work 
better, at least in the area of food safety, then we can have this 
discussion on fast track.
  Mr. STUPAK. Those three points that the gentleman points out have 
come from discussions we have had on the Subcommittee on Health and 
Environment which has jurisdiction over health and safety and food and 
FDA in this country; but also in looking at the GAO report, the Report 
to Congressional Committees on Agricultural Inspection, Improvements 
Needed to Minimize the Threat of Foreign Pests and Diseases, GAO Report 
97-102. What we are asking for before we extend what we feel are the 
inadequacies of NAFTA under another fast track authority which the 
President would like done this fall, before we rush headlong into it, 
before we put further restrictions on American producers and 
manufacturers and meatpacking plants throughout this country, that 
those same quality assurances apply not just to items produced in this 
country but also coming into this country. We have done a dismal job 
according to the GAO report in even trying to address the issues. Again 
I thank the gentleman for his leadership on this issue, and I look 
forward to working with him. We do have the letter going to the 
President.

[[Page H7116]]

 We are asking Members to sign that letter and just to say whatever 
your position is on fast track, let us make sure we take these minimum 
basic three steps to ensure the health and safety and security of 
American families.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, we have no business moving ahead on 
NAFTA, moving to expand NAFTA until we really do protect the American 
public with better quality food, vegetables, fruits, meats, whatever.

                          ____________________