[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 21 (Tuesday, March 1, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H822]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            OUR TRADE RECORD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, here is the trade record. The United States 
is moving deeper and deeper into red ink with every major country with 
which we have a trade agreement. In fact, when we sign the trade 
agreements, the deficits get worse. Last year, it rung in at well over 
$600 billion, nearly two-thirds of $1 trillion, money that flows out of 
this country someplace else.
  I rise tonight to join my colleagues in opposition to the newest idea 
that is being proposed, CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade 
Agreement. There is nothing free about free trade.
  We are united in support of worker rights, the environment, family 
farmers and working men and women. This is not about us in our country 
versus people in other countries. It is about supporters of fair trade, 
teaming up for trade agreements that raise standards of living for 
everyone, and put people and communities before multinational 
corporations that pit one Nation against another.
  Free trade can only exist among free people. Where that does not 
exist, trade then equals exploitation of people and communities.
  During the 10th anniversary of NAFTA, I led a delegation to Mexico 
last year to examine NAFTA's trade, economic and social record 
applications. Unfortunately, NAFTA's story does not have a happy 
ending. In Mexico, real wages have declined, not increased, as 
promised. Millions of farmers and rural dwellers have been kicked off 
their land, fueling an exodus north to the Maquiladora zones that the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis) so aptly described.
  Here, at home, factory after factory continues to shut its doors to 
the cheap labor of the Maquiladoras, and U.S. workers have been handed 
pink slips by the thousands, by the hundreds of thousands and the 
border ecosystem has taken a major hit.
  Thousands were told we would have trade surpluses with all of these 
countries. Well, there is another false one.
  Here is Mexico. Ever since NAFTA's signing, we have moved into deeper 
and deeper trade deficit with the Nation of Mexico, now nearly $50 
billion a year, and the same is true with Canada.
  How can the Bush administration propose to expand NAFTA to five more 
countries? I know his father did this for NAFTA, but should we not have 
learned something by now? I am not sure the President is willing to 
learn from past mistakes. If something does not work, are we not 
supposed to fix it? Should we not be fixing this?
  The same is true with China. Another agreement was signed with the 
Nation of China. Have we moved into trade balance with China? 
Absolutely not. In fact, we have the largest trade deficit in history 
with China today, now totaling over $170 billion, and the red ink just 
gets deeper.
  With all of its faults, NAFTA's negotiations took 7 years. CAFTA's 
negotiations took barely one year. One year? Do we really want to base 
major policy trade decisions on such a rushed process? Do my colleagues 
know why it only took 1 year? Because Congress and fair trade 
organizations were shut out. It did not even get a chance to testify. 
President Bush expects to bring this to the floor for a simple up or 
down vote under fast track. Is that really the way to develop 
international trade policy?
  Besides, what is the rush? The combined GDP of Central America is 
equal to one-half of one percent of the United States. What Central 
America does have is idle hands, not consumers with dollars ready to 
spend. We should take the time needed to address serious concerns in 
labor, so those folks can actually earn a decent living, agriculture 
and their right to eke out a decent living, investment rights and many 
more topics as we did with the Jordanian trade agreement.
  Let the public then get a good look at it here in this Congress and 
decide do we want more NAFTAs.
  The labor provisions of CAFTA are shameful. The only requirement is 
to enforce laws already on the books, and let me ask, what labor rights 
exist in El Salvador? They are nonexistent. Would people rather work in 
the United States or in El Salvador? CAFTA is another example of a rush 
to the bottom.
  Just like the fight over China trade, we are being promised great 
markets for our goods. They obviously have not happened in China. Two-
thirds of Central America's poor live in desperately poor rural 
regions. They are not going to be rushing out to buy Microsoft Office 
systems.
  Let us be realistic. I support trade with Central America, but free 
trade ought to occur among free people, and America ought to stand for 
internationally recognized labor rights, the right to own and farm your 
land, the right to a clean environment and the right to economic 
security.

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