[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 157 (Sunday, November 9, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H10427]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CALLING FOR BALANCED TRADE AGREEMENTS WHICH CONTAIN PROTECTIONS FOR 
                      WORKERS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

  (Mr. NADLER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, since NAFTA we have converted a $2 billion 
trade surplus with Mexico to a $20 billion trade deficit. In 65 percent 
of union organizing elections, employers have threatened to move to 
Mexico or to another foreign country if workers have chosen the 
advantages of collective bargaining.
  Working people have gotten almost none of the benefits of our 
expanding economy, as real wages for the middle class have remained 
static and, for lower-income workers, have actually declined. NAFTA and 
fast track quite properly protect American investors who invest abroad 
and protect intellectual property rights, but they do not protect labor 
and environmental rights. They are imbalanced.
  We must have balanced trade agreements that protect not only 
investments and intellectual property, but also labor and environmental 
standards if trade is to serve all our people, and if our expanding 
trade is not to serve as a tool to be used to deny a fair share of our 
economic gains from filtering down to working people and to the middle 
class. Reject the fast track agreement as imbalanced.

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