[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 157 (Sunday, November 9, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H10426]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              PUT PEOPLE FIRST: VOTE ``NO'' ON FAST TRACK

  (Mr. LEVIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LEVIN. Madam Speaker, the strategy of those of us opposing the 
present fast track proposal is not ``America last,'' but putting people 
first. This is not mainly about the power of interest groups, but the 
power of issues.
  In the last decade, more and more of U.S. trade has been with nations 
with low wages and tightly controlled labor and other markets, and with 
lax environmental conditions. Indeed, our imports from these nations 
like China, India, Brazil, Mexico rose by 25 percent in the last 
decade, and as an administration official said yesterday, 50 percent of 
all United States trade will be with these nations in the near future, 
increasingly changing from footwear to higher-tech ware.
  Instead of moving forward towards new rules of competition to meet 
new patterns of expanding trade, the present fast track proposal goes 
backwards, limiting the President's authority in important areas of 
labor markets and the environment. There were no such limitations on 
Presidents Carter, Reagan, or Bush.
  This fast-track proposal is wrong. Vote ``no'' and let us go back and 
do it right.

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