[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 79 (Wednesday, June 15, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H4555-H4556]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 CENTRAL AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT

  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, 1 year and 1 month ago, President 
Bush signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement, a cousin of the 
North American Free Trade Agreement, which would extend the same NAFTA-
type trade provisions to six countries, five in Central America and the 
Dominican Republic.
  Unlike every other trade agreement which President Bush has signed, 
Morocco, Chile, Singapore and Australia, which were signed and voted on 
by Congress within 60 days, the Central American Free Trade Agreement 
has simply languished in the halls of Congress. The President has not 
brought it forward to vote on, in large part because the people of this 
body, a majority of the Members of Congress, will not vote for it. And 
here is why.
  It is pretty clear, Mr. Speaker that our trade policy is not working. 
In 1992, the year I ran for Congress, we had a $38 billion trade 
deficit, meaning we sold $38 billion less than we imported, exported 
less than we imported. $38 billion. Today, or 2004, that number had 
increased to $618 billion, from $38 billion to $618 billion in a dozen 
years.
  Mr. Speaker, maybe that is just numbers, but when you look at the 
trade deficit, and you know what it means, it has meant in large part a 
huge loss of manufacturing jobs. Just in the last 6 years these States 
in red have all lost at least 20 percent of their manufacturing. 
Michigan, 210,000; Ohio, 216-; Illinois, 224-; Pennsylvania, 200-; 
Mississippi and Alabama 130,000; North Carolina, 228,000. States in the 
purple here, dark blue, purple, have lost 15 to 20 percent of their 
manufacturing jobs.
  It is clear, Mr. Speaker, that our trade policy is not working. Now, 
because of that and because the President cannot get nearly enough 
votes to pass the Central American Free Trade Agreement, they have 
begun to negotiate side deals, and they have promised bridges and 
highways as they did in 2001 on the last big trade vote in this 
Congress, something called trade promotion authority. They have 
promised to change CAFTA and do something down the road. Trust us, vote 
for it, and then we will make some provisions later down to help sugar, 
help textile, to help the steel industry, to protect jobs, to perhaps 
bring up living standards in Central America.
  The latest promise that they have made is to offer $20 million for 
enforcement of labor standards. This is the same administration that 
has cut labor standards in the United States and has dropped the 
funding for the Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor 
Affairs from $148 million 4 years ago down to 12 million. They want to 
put $20 million back.

                              {time}  1815

  We can play with numbers, but the fact is the enforcement of labor 
standards in Central America is basically nonexistent under CAFTA and 
under the President's plans.
  At the same time, the International Labor Organization sets standards 
agreed on by all countries around the world to lift up labor standards 
so that workers can make a decent wage, that workers can bargain and 
organize collectively. The ILO standards prohibit child labor, prohibit 
forced labor, all the kinds of values that we in this country share 
with our colleagues and our workers in our families. With all of that, 
the administration is one of only two countries out of 80 in the world 
that is not fully supporting the ILO and what it wants to do in Geneva 
with its funding, with its programs, with all that.
  So it is pretty clear, Mr. Speaker, that the $20 million offer to 
support labor standards is just a fig leaf to try to convince a few 
Members of Congress to vote for the Central American Free Trade 
Agreement.
  While all those deals have been going on, Mr. Speaker, a group of us 
had a rally today at the Cannon building in Washington, a group of 
legislators from the United States and a group of legislators from 
Central America. They rallied against the Central American Free Trade 
Agreement, not to kill it but to defeat this Central American Free 
Trade Agreement and come back with a better Central American Free Trade 
Agreement that protects the environment, that helps working people in 
both countries. All of us together have called on Congress to pass a 
better Central American Free Trade Agreement.

[[Page H4556]]

  These legislators from our country and from seven countries in 
Central America and Latin America understand that this CAFTA protects 
drug companies while harming the sick and the poor. They understand 
this CAFTA protects the world's largest corporations while hurting 
small businesses and working families. They understand this trade 
agreement protects huge industries while undermining the environment.
  They understand that they want and have called for a CAFTA that lifts 
workers up and raises living standards, a CAFTA that protects people 
the same way it protects property rights and the drug industry, a CAFTA 
that allows HIV patients access to affordable, life-saving drugs.
  They understand, most importantly, that CAFTA was negotiated by a 
select few to benefit only a select few, not the masses of people in 
our country and the other six CAFTA countries.
  It is past time to renegotiate a trade agreement that works for all 
citizen of all seven CAFTA Nations.

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