[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 67 (Thursday, May 19, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H3678-H3679]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      CAFTA AND OUR TRADE DEFICIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, it has been nearly a year since the 
President signed the secretly negotiated CAFTA agreement and has begun 
the process to bring it forward to the House for an up-or-down vote. No 
amendments allowed. It is a perfect agreement, of course.
  It is only perfect in that it mirrors all of our most recent failed 
trade agreements, such as its predecessor, NAFTA.
  Some would say this is about helping the American economy, putting 
Americans to work, to help our exporters. That is what they said about 
NAFTA. And it turned out that the people of Mexico, the aggregate 
buying power of everybody in Mexico who spent every peso on American 
goods was slightly less than the State of New Jersey. It was never 
about the purchasing power of the people of Mexico and the idea that 
somehow they were going to buy American goods and put Americans to work 
here at home. It was always about United States capital, multinational 
corporations, chasing cheaper labor into Mexico and now further into 
Latin America; chasing lack of environmental standards and enforcement 
into Mexico, particularly the maquiladora area, which is a total 
environmental nightmare, further into Latin America; in chase of the 
lowest standards, the lowest common denominator, the most abused labor.
  And that is what CAFTA is all about. It mirrors the NAFTA agreement. 
Like the NAFTA agreement, it will deliver the same thing. They told us 
we would gain 140,000 jobs with NAFTA. Well, we lost close to half a 
million jobs because of NAFTA. CAFTA will be the same.
  When we are doing something that is failing the Nation and the 
Nation's workers and driving down wages here at home and trying to pull 
down our standards of consumer protection, environmental protection, 
labor standards, then maybe it is time to think about doing something 
different, and perhaps the House of Representatives is on the verge of 
doing that. Perhaps they are beginning to listen to the large majority 
of the American people. We are going to run a trade deficit this year 
of $2 billion a day.

                              {time}  2045

  Every billion dollars represents tens of thousands of lost jobs, the 
export of our industrial base, and, now, the export of our knowledge 
base.
  We cannot continue these same failed policies as the President would 
have us do. I have heard that they have begun the purchasing phase of 
the CAFTA agreement.
  Now, most Americans would wonder, what is the purchasing phase? Well, 
they have tried the strong-arm phase for the last year. They still do 
not have enough votes to jam another failed trade agreement through the 
United States House of Representatives. So I am told by friends on the 
other side of the aisle that they are about to begin the purchasing 
phase.
  The White House is open for business. What do you need? How much does 
it cost? What can we do for you? It is not any argument that this is 
somehow going to deal with our trade deficit, help raise wages here at 
home, help provide jobs here at home; it is all about what deal can we 
cut for you so these same multinational corporations can continue to 
move jobs offshore, and, in this case, a little closer to

[[Page H3679]]

home. Perhaps they could avoid some of the transport costs from China 
or India where they have sent many of our other jobs, or Vietnam, and 
they can find almost as exploitable and cheap labor in Central America.
  The combined buying power of these five nations is less than four 
days' purchasing power of the United States of America. If every person 
in these affected nations spent every cent they earned in the next 
year, it would be totally insignificant to the American economy; and, 
obviously, they are not going to do that. So it is very much the same 
as NAFTA: it is to move our plants, our equipment, some workers have 
even been made to package up their machines and train their 
replacements in the case of NAFTA, and they will be doing the same 
thing under CAFTA.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for a major change in policy. It is time for 
a policy that brings jobs home to America, that puts people at work 
here in America, that helps maintain wages in our country, and helps 
bring people overseas up to our standards instead of trying to drag the 
American people down to the lowest common denominator.
  I hope that Members, particularly on the other side of the aisle, 
will not be bought by the White House in this debate and they will vote 
in the interests of the people who sent them here to Washington, DC.

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