[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 128 (Tuesday, September 23, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H7609-H7610]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PROBLEMS WITH FAST TRACK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 21, 1997, the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Stupak] is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STUPAK. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor this afternoon to talk 
about fast track. Recently the President has requested fast track 
authority from the United States Congress to extend

[[Page H7610]]

the NAFTA-like trade agreements to South America, Chile, and the 
Caribbean Basin.
  Mr. Speaker, what the fast track authority really does is extend 
trade agreements to countries without any chance of the U.S. Congress 
or the U.S. Senate to amend, alter, or change these agreements. We are 
very concerned about this fast track authority. We do not know what the 
rush is and why we have to enter into another fast track type of 
agreement when we find problems with past fast track legislation, 
namely, the NAFTA agreement.
  In the past, Mr. Speaker, when we may have criticized fast track 
agreements, and it centered on labor or environmental concerns, and 
these are good reasons to oppose fast track if they do not address our 
environmental or labor concerns, but there is a third reason and maybe 
a more pressing reason to reject this new fast track authority for the 
President if the fast track legislation does not contain food safety 
and pesticide use and control of fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry 
coming into this country.
  Food safety should be of the utmost concern of all Americans. It is 
not a trade issue, it is a safety issue, based upon the food we present 
to our family each and every day.
  If we take a look at the NAFTA experience, Mr. Speaker, we find that 
over the past 3 years that NAFTA has been implemented, we find that the 
standards for food safety, pesticide use on food and products coming 
into the United States has actually been lowered under NAFTA. Why 
should our standards, our high qualities that we enjoy here in the 
United States to ensure proper food, nutrition, and safety on our 
dinner tables, be waived or lowered in the name of some fast track 
agreement?
  If we take a look at the May 1997 General Accounting Office review of 
the NAFTA and the food safety issue, we find that over 9,000 trucks per 
day come into this country from Mexico. That is 3.3 million trucks a 
year. When we take a look at it, there is very little or no enforcement 
or inspection of these vehicles entering the United States.

  For instance, the GAO study reports that strawberries alone has an 
18-percent violation of our health food and safety standards. Carrots 
have a 12-percent violation. Head lettuce that comes into the United 
States from Mexico, 15 percent of them are found to be in violation of 
our food and health standards. Now, these are not my statistics, or it 
is not my report, but that of the Government Accounting Office, May 
1997 study.
  When we eat contaminated food, we have problems, as we have seen 
recently in this country, with E. coli, or hepatitis A. Hepatitis A 
along the Mexican border with Texas has a 2 to 5 times greater 
hepatitis outbreak in certain counties in Texas than the national 
average, and it is directly related to food entering into the United 
States not properly cared for, inspected, and treated before it is 
being placed on our tables. Even in Michigan where I am from, Mr. 
Speaker, this past year we had 130 schoolchildren who were infected 
with hepatitis A when they consumed strawberries that were grown in 
Mexico.
  When we talk about pesticides, which ones can and cannot be used to 
grow fruits and vegetables, many of those standards are waived under 
the current NAFTA agreement, and I am afraid that under the new fast 
track authority for the South American and Caribbean Basin that there 
will not be adequate pesticide standards placed in that agreement.
  Again, this is not a trade issue, but really a safety issue. We 
should not lower our standards. We should not jeopardize the health and 
safety of our families in the name of trade, but let us not lower our 
standards.
  Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Brown] and myself have been 
preparing a letter to send to the President which asks him, before he 
agrees to any fast track authority, we would ask him and we would urge 
him to do the following: Renegotiate the provisions of NAFTA which 
relate to border inspections and food safety, and ensure that any 
future requests for fast track authority include strong food safety 
protections. Increase the funding for border inspections, or in the 
alternative, limit the increasing rate of food imports to ensure that 
safety of our food is paramount at the time of inspection. We would 
also ask the President to begin an aggressive program to label all 
food, including fresh and frozen fruits, vegetables, and meats, and 
also place what country they are from.
  What we find now is food coming into the United States, and they are 
in a big truck or container ship.

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