[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 83 (Monday, May 21, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H5518]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          NEW VERSION OF NAFTA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, Congress is now faced with a so-called new 
trade policy with regard to Peru, Panama, Colombia and South Korea. But 
this deal is not a new direction for trade; it's a variation of the 
same old theme.
  We have seen how NAFTA has sucked a million good jobs out of our 
country and ruined millions of lives in Mexico and driven so many 
desperate illegal immigrants across our border. We have seen how so-
called free trade with a closed and manipulative China has led to 
soaring deficits, increasing outsourcing of our jobs, and lax labor and 
environmental standards not just in Asia, but around the world in a 
race to the bottom. Tainted Chinese food is not just being sent here 
for our pets, but for our people.
  The trade policy released last week does not make any major changes 
to this trade regimen. It does not aim at yielding a more balanced set 
of trade accounts for our country, or even opening the closed markets 
of the world. It doesn't fix agreements that aren't working to our 
advantage or even to be fair to both sides. There is nothing in this 
deal about the privatization of public works, for example, in water or 
in sanitation or health care that are inherent in what has been 
negotiated. If Democrats oppose privatizing Social Security here in the 
United States, why would we require privatizing the Peruvian social 
security system? Now, why would we do that?
  This NAFTA replica presents a nonbinding list of requests that has 
the illusion of enforceability, but sacrifices more of our middle class 
to global investors.
  In fact, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has said it supports this 
rehashed agenda because of, and I quote, assurances that the labor 
provisions cannot be read to comply with ILO conventions.
  These repackaged NAFTA agreements do not reflect a desire for a new 
trade model that many Members of Congress and vast majorities of the 
American people expect. And I am truly saddened that those who have 
cobbled these deals together make light of the people of our country 
and other countries who have been so deeply hurt by these agreements, 
by denying them a seat at the tables of testimony in this very 
Congress. In fact, their methods are most undemocratic.
  Last March NBC and the Wall Street Journal conducted a poll asking 
the American people, do you think free trade agreements between the 
United States and foreign countries have helped the United States, have 
hurt the United States or have not made much of a difference? Forty-six 
percent of respondents answered U.S. trade agreements have hurt this 
country. Only 28 responded, half as many, said they have helped.
  The American people want free trade among free people, and they want 
a trade policy that encourages U.S. economic growth and job creation 
here at home.
  It is irresponsible to continue to reword the same agreements and 
expect that our constituents are naive enough to accept it as real 
change.
  A new trade policy must respect the dignity of work, the rule of law, 
the equality of sexes, the nobility of the environment and the value of 
the person.
  We cannot continue to stand for trade policies, binding or not, that 
degrade the value of the working class and cost money, jobs and lives 
as we see in the wake of NAFTA and in all of the trade agreements that 
mirrored it.
  Our constituents realize that our current trade policy is more 
harmful than helpful. And before we encourage the remaking of NAFTA for 
Peru, Colombia, Panama, South Korea, we need to revisit U.S. trade 
policy and make comprehensive changes. We cannot extend fast track 
until we fix what is wrong with existing agreements that yield these 
job hemorrhages.
  I applaud those of our distinguished colleagues who are here this 
evening who are working very hard to change this trade model to make it 
thorough, to make it fair, to make it a balanced situation for the 
people of our country, and to treat the people of the Third World with 
respect.
  I look forward to participating in genuinely reshaping the future of 
international trade to reshape jobs being created here at home and the 
economic policies that are so vital to the future for our people in 
order that they can move into the middle class again, rather than 
falling out. We have a long way to go.

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