[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 30 (Monday, March 14, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H1406]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE UGLY FACE OF CAFTA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, this is the face of the Central 
American Free Trade Agreement.
  This photo was taken by Reuters news service last week in Guatemala 
as police forces used tear gas and water cannons to beat back 
demonstrators who had united to speak out against the Central American 
Free Trade Agreement. Sadly, despite days of protests in organized 
worker strikes against CAFTA, the Guatemalan Congress ratified that 
trade agreement late last week.
  It appears that politicians encouraged by multinational corporations 
fail to understand what their workers realize all too clearly: CAFTA is 
an empty promise that will keep workers in poverty while reaping huge 
profits for the corporate executives.
  Throughout the developing world, Mr. Speaker, workers simply, unlike 
in this country in most cases, workers simply do not share in the 
wealth they create. Nike workers in Vietnam cannot afford the shoes 
they make. Disney workers in Costa Rica cannot afford the toys for 
their children. Motorola workers in Malaysia are unable to purchase the 
cell phone.
  The North American Free Trade Agreement promised to create a thriving 
middle class in Mexico, promising higher wages, promising to lift 
people out of poverty. Eleven years later there is no newly created 
middle class realizing its dreams. Instead there is a fallen minimum 
wage and the ongoing nightmare of abject poverty, despite backbreaking 
work, despite deplorable working conditions.
  Now President Bush wants to expand this failed trade policy with 
CAFTA, dysfunction cousin of NAFTA, involving five Central American 
countries: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.
  CAFTA nations are not only among the world's poorest countries; they 
are among the smallest economies. With a $62 billion combined economic 
output, about that of Columbus, Ohio, these nations can hardly serve as 
a growth engine for the $10 trillion U.S. economy.
  CAFTA is more about access to cheap labor and exporting American jobs 
than it is exporting U.S. goods and produce.
  Trade pacts like NAFTA and CAFTA enable countries to exploit cheap 
labor in other countries and then import their products back into the 
United States under favorable terms. As a result, America, especially 
my State of Ohio, bleeds manufacturing jobs and runs unprecedented 
trade deficits.
  The first year I ran for Congress, our trade deficit was $38 billion. 
Today it is $617 billion for calendar year 2004. Gregory Mankiw, then 
President Bush's chief economist, portrayed the exporting of jobs as 
inevitable and desirable saying, ``When a good or service is produced 
more cheaply abroad, it makes more sense to import it than it does to 
provide it domestically.''
  What really makes sense is a trade policy that lifts workers up in 
rich and poor countries alike, while respecting human rights and 
democratic principles. Proof that CAFTA is a legacy of failing trade 
policies is evidence in this Congress's own inaction. For the last 5 
years, Congress has typically voted within about 2 months, within 60 
days of President Bush signing a trade agreement.
  Nearly 300 days have elapsed since President Bush signed the Central 
America Free Trade Agreement, still this Congress has not acted because 
the majority of this Congress understands our trade policies have 
failed.
  Proof that CAFTA is a failure can be seen in this photo, Mr. Speaker. 
In Guatemala today, thousands of workers united in a nationwide strike 
voicing opposition to a trade policy they know will fail them, one that 
American workers also know will fail us.
  This is the result of these demonstrations, where police turn on this 
country's workers, workers who are simply opposing in a democratic, 
open demonstration opposing its government trade policies. Yet the U.S. 
continues to push for more of the same, more trade agreements that ship 
jobs overseas, more trade agreements that neglect essential 
environmental rules, more trade agreements that keep foreign workers in 
poverty.
  Madness is repeating the same action over and over and over and 
expecting a different result. The United States with our unrivaled 
purchasing power and our enormous economic clout is in a unique 
position to help empower poor workers in developing countries while 
promoting prosperity here at home.
  When the world's poorest people can buy American products rather than 
just make them, we know then that our trade policies have finally 
succeeded.

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