[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 82 (Monday, June 20, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H4789]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 CAFTA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Marchant). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I have listened to my colleagues 
with great interest tonight.
  Three issues seem to have been raised. One is on CAFTA, which I will 
address tonight, and then we talked about Guantanamo, which I am going 
to try to address later this week. Then we will talk about Iraq because 
there are parallels between what we are seeing in Iraq right now and 
what happened in World War I and World War II, but I cannot cover all 
those tonight. So I will debate my colleagues on some of those other 
issues later this week.
  Let me talk about CAFTA right now because the gentlewoman from Ohio 
(Ms. Kaptur), my good friend, for whom I have the highest regard, was 
just talking about some of the problems that occur with women in 
Central and South America and the living conditions and the working 
conditions, and I agree with her.
  Because of that, and a number of other reasons, I voted against NAFTA 
and worked with my colleague on that, and I voted against the WTO and 
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. So you probably ask, well, 
why in the world, Danny, would you be in favor of CAFTA if you opposed 
all those others? So I want to tell my colleagues tonight why I support 
CAFTA.
  First of all, we have what is known as the Caribbean Basin 
Initiative, and the Caribbean Basin Initiative is kind of a one-way 
street right now. We allow the Caribbean countries and Central American 
countries to export into the United States without tariffs while at the 
same time, when we send stuff into those countries, we do have to pay 
tariffs in many cases. So the bottom line is it is a one-way street.
  The Caribbean Basin Initiative will go by the wayside if we pass 
CAFTA, and we will have a two-way street where there will be minimal 
tariffs or no tariffs whatsoever, and so our producers will benefit the 
same as the producers in Central America and the Caribbean. I think 
that is one reason why I think CAFTA is a better deal than what we see 
with the Caribbean Basin Initiative.
  The second thing is that we need to see stability in Central and 
South America. President Reagan, when he was President, worked very 
hard to create democracy in our hemisphere, and as a result of the 
Reagan doctrine, all of the countries in Central and South America 
became fledgling democracies over the past few decades with the 
exception of Cuba. We are starting to see cracks in those democracies 
because of the poverty down there and because of some leftist leaders. 
We see problems in four or five, six countries in Central and South 
America right now, and one of the things that we need to do is to 
address the issue of poverty down there.
  One way to do that is to try to see some foreign investment going in 
there from places besides China and Europe into Central and South 
America so that we see a reduction in the poverty rate and a reduction 
in the pressure that is being brought about on the existing democracies 
down there to move toward leftist governments.
  If we have a change, a sea change in those countries in Central and 
South America, then what is going to happen is the illegal immigration 
problems that we see right now will be magnified. They will grow 
because people want to flee tyranny. They want to flee conflict, and if 
you start seeing revolutionary activity take place, like that which we 
saw in El Salvador in the 1980s, and in Nicaragua in the 1980s and 
elsewhere, then you are going to see people saying, I am getting the 
heck out of here; I am going north; I am going to the United States. 
Our border is very porous. We have a terrible time controlling it right 
now. We have millions of people that have come across that border that 
are now in the United States that cost our taxpayers money and cause a 
lot of hardship and problems.
  So stabilizing those governments in Central and South America I think 
is extremely important. I am now the chairman of the Subcommittee on 
the Western Hemisphere on the Committee on International Relations, and 
I have had a chance, along with my colleague the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Menendez) to start looking at this issue. We may not agree 
on this, but I think it is important that we go down there and look at 
these countries and find out how we can make sure there are stable 
governments in place and that we do not see democracies start to 
deteriorate and go by the wayside.
  So I feel it is very important that we look at this from more than 
just one point of view. Trade is important. Job loss by Americans is 
very important. I am concerned about both of those things. A two-way 
street in trade with no tariffs I think is also very important, but 
also one of the major issues as far as I am concerned is the 
stabilization of democracy in our hemisphere. If we do not, as a leader 
of democratic institutions in this hemisphere and around the world, 
take the initiative to stabilize those countries, who in the heck will?
  So I still believe in free and fair trade. I would not vote for NAFTA 
today. I would not vote for GATT today. I would not vote for the WTO 
today, but I am going to vote for CAFTA, and the reason I am voting for 
CAFTA is for the reason I just said. I think it is extremely important 
to not only worry about trade and balance but also about national 
security and immigration, and I hope my colleagues at least understand 
where I stand on this issue because I love you guys.

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