[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 64 (Monday, May 16, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H3291]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        FAILED TRADE AGREEMENTS

  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, nearly a year ago, President Bush 
signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement, a one-sided plan to 
benefit multinational corporations at the expense of the United States 
and Central American workers, small farmers, and small business people. 
Every trade agreement negotiated by this administration has been 
ratified by Congress within 60 days of its signing.
  But CAFTA has languished in Congress for nearly 1 year. Why? Because 
this wrong-headed trade agreement offends both Republicans and 
Democrats. Just look at what has happened with our trade policy. In 
1992, the year I first ran for Congress, was elected later that year, 
that year our trade deficit, meaning the amount of dollars we imported 
versus exported, our trade deficit was $38 billion in 1992. Last year 
in 2004, it was $618 billion. It is hard to argue our trade policy is 
working when the deficit goes from $38 billion to $618 billion in just 
12 years.
  Opponents to the Central American Free Trade Agreement know it is an 
extension of NAFTA, which clearly did not work for our country. It is 
the same old story. Every time there is a trade agreement, the 
President says it will mean more jobs for Americans, more manufacturing 
done in the United States, it will mean more economic prosperity and 
profits for U.S. companies. It will mean a rising standard of living in 
the developing world; it will mean more involvement, a higher standard 
of living in the developing world, and more workers working.

                              {time}  1945

  But it never works that way. So now they are trying this year because 
our trade policy clearly is not working, those promises every year, 
every trade agreement, never pan out.
  This year the administration is tying the Central American Free Trade 
Agreement, saying it is not just going to ensure growth, it is going to 
help democracy in the developing world. Both Deputy Secretary of State 
Robert Zoellick and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have said CAFTA 
will help in the war on terror, but 10 years of the North American Free 
Trade Agreement has done nothing to improve border security between 
Mexico and the United States, so that argument simply does not sell.
  So they tried something else. Last week the U.S. Chamber of Commerce 
flew six Central American presidents around our country hoping they 
might be able to sell CAFTA. They went to Albuquerque, they went to Los 
Angeles, they went to Cincinnati, Ohio, in my State, trying to convince 
the media, trying to convince the public, trying to convince Members of 
Congress that CAFTA was a good idea.
  Again they failed. The Costa Rican president after the trip announced 
his country would not ratify CAFTA unless an independent commission 
could determine the agreement will not hurt the working poor in his 
country.
  The most powerful Republican in the House, Majority Leader Tom DeLay, 
even promised a vote on CAFTA by Memorial Day to try to drum up support 
in Congress. As you can see by this calendar, we are barely a week away 
from that deadline, the deadline to vote on the Central American Free 
Trade Agreement, set by Majority Leader Tom DeLay, the most powerful 
Republican in this Chamber. Echoed by the chairman of the Ways and 
Means Committee, Bill Thomas, they said there would be a vote by the 
end of this month. That is the 1-year anniversary of CAFTA. Remember, 
every other trade agreement was voted on within 2 months. This one has 
been a year. As you can see by the calendar, it has simply not 
happened. That is again because of the failures of NAFTA.
  Last month, two dozen Democrats and Republicans in Congress joined 
more than 150 business groups and labor organizations saying vote 
``no'' on the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Last week, more 
than 400 union workers and Members of Congress gathered in front of the 
U.S. Capitol delivered the same message, vote ``no'' on the Central 
American Free Trade Agreement, because Republicans and Democrats, labor 
and business, know what the administration refuses to admit, that CAFTA 
is about one thing. It is not about more manufacturing in the United 
States. It is not about creating jobs in the United States. It is one 
thing only. It is access to cheap Central American labor.
  That is why CAFTA, like NAFTA, is not a trade agreement, it is an 
outsourcing agreement. It will move more American jobs offshore. It 
will mean more profits for large businesses and more hurt for small 
businesses, more hurt for small farmers. Congress must throw out this 
dysfunctional cousin of NAFTA and negotiate a trade agreement that will 
lift up workers in Central America.
  When students such as those I met with today at Longfellow Elementary 
School in Lorain, Ohio, are guaranteed good-paying jobs when they 
graduate from high school, then we will know finally our trade policy 
is working.

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