[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1123-E1124]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            TRADE AND LABOR

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. LINDA T. SANCHEZ

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 21, 2007

  Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join 
my colleagues in addressing the House and the American people regarding 
our trade policy and its effect on working families.
  I'd like to thank my colleague, Phil Hare, who organized this special 
order debate and

[[Page E1124]]

who is an active member of the Congressional Labor and Working Families 
Caucus and the House Trade Working Group.
  On May 10, the Administration and Members of this House announced a 
``New Policy on Trade.''
  It's about time. Democrats have been calling for a new direction in 
trade for years. Finally, the Administration appears to be listening to 
these calls for improved provisions to protect workers, their families, 
and the environment. I applaud the baby steps the Administration has 
taken. But the Administration needs to take giant leaps to improve on 
its current, failing approach to trade.
  This new ``deal'' on trade covers changes to certain provisions of 
the Bush-negotiated Free Trade Agreements, FTAs, with Peru and Panama. 
Though we have seen outlines and summaries of this new ``deal'' on 
trade, we have not seen the final, legal text. Yet we have been asked 
to trust the Administration's promises and support this new ``deal.''
  To those of us in Congress who have been working to champion the 
rights of American working families and begin a new approach to trade, 
the Administration's promises sound awfully familiar.
  And when I say awful, I mean awful.
  Each time this Administration has presented one of its trade schemes 
to Congress, it has promised us that the agreement includes all sorts 
of so-called ``innovative'' worker protections. We heard this over and 
over again during the debate on the Central American Free Trade 
Agreement.
  But the fact is, no matter what label you use to describe them, the 
so-called labor protections in CAFTA were disappointingly weak. For 
example, under CAFTA, countries can down-grade their own labor laws, 
without facing any trade penalties or sanctions.
  Allowing our partners in free trade deals to erode their own labor 
standards is unfair to our workers here at home, who can't possibly 
compete with workers who are denied basic workplace rights, who are 
paid two dollars a day, or who face forced labor--as our own State 
Department reported was the case in Oman.
  CAFTA passed the House by the narrowest of margins at a time when it 
was Republican controlled. You would think that the Administration 
would have gotten the message that it needed to do better.
  You would think the Administration would have realized that from then 
on, it should include more of us in the process and work out a 
different type of trade deal.
  But unfortunately no one was listening. Since CAFTA, we've seen the 
same weak labor provisions in the Oman FTA.
  And now we are asked to have faith that the Administration has really 
turned over a new leaf? That enforceable labor and environmental 
standards will be included in the text of the Peru and Panama 
agreements?
  I have faith in many things, but not in these promises.
  This Administration has lost my faith. It has lied too many times, 
about too many things: that Iraq posed an imminent danger, that the 
mission in Iraq was accomplished, that at least nine U.S. attorneys 
were fired because they were incompetent, that the air around ground 
zero was safe to breathe, that we have not been experiencing any change 
in our climate.
  Perhaps more importantly, even if these agreements are the best 
written, fairest trade agreements possible, so long as they rely on 
this Administration to enforce the labor and environmental standards 
they contain, they are not worth the paper they are written on.
  This Administration has failed to protect workers here in the United 
States. The BP Texas City explosion, the Sago Mine Disaster, and the 9/
11 first responders and clean-up workers who have developed serious 
breathing ailments--these are just the most notorious examples of this 
Administration's relinquishment of its responsibilities to provide even 
the most basic protection to workers: the right to work in a safe 
environment.
  And that's not even mentioning the Administration's opposition to 
increasing the minimum wage, to protecting pensions and Social 
Security, and to ensuring that workers have the right to organize.
  The Bush trade deal would give private corporations the ability to 
take action on their own to protect their rights. It would not, 
however, extend that same power to workers, who would have to rely on 
the Bush Administration to do that for them.
  Trust this Administration to protect working American families? I 
don't think so. This new trade deal--like the previous bad deals--is a 
one-sided raw deal for workers.
  We're continually told that NAFTA-style free trade will create more 
wealth in all the countries involved. Yet NAFTA-style free trade has 
meant the loss of jobs as those jobs have been shipped overseas.
  Just as trickle-down economics proved to be a failure at lifting 
people out of poverty, the current free trade model has also proved to 
be a failure. Since NAFTA, the real income of working families has been 
on the decline or stagnant at best.
  The middle class is getting squeezed from all directions. Downward 
pressure on wages is being accompanied by higher health care costs, 
higher gas prices, and higher education costs.
  It's high time to develop a new trade policy that works for working 
families. American workers came out in droves in the last election, and 
they voted for a new majority. As part of the new majority, we owe it 
to them to stand with them for fair trade. To stand with them in 
creating a new America.
  This is possible.
  Fair trade is an option.
  If we stand united for working Americans, we can deliver a real new 
deal on trade, not warmed over hash masquerading as caviar. You know 
the old saying about putting lipstick on a pig? Well, I smell bacon. I 
don't have to read the complete text of the deal to read between the 
lines.
  The bottom line is this: minor adjustments to NAFTA-style deals are 
not good enough.
  No more agreements based on the failed NAFTA model.
  No more ``Fast Track'' trade negotiation authority.
  We cannot give this Administration or future ones a blank check on 
trade deals that devastate our communities.
  Trade can benefit our economy and the economies of our trading 
partners. We can negotiate deals that create new markets, bringing new 
jobs and new prosperity. We can achieve significant new foreign market 
access and reduce our trade deficit.
  But to do so, we must embark on a new path. Not a slight detour from 
our current direction.
  I challenge Republicans and Democrats, employers and employees, all 
those who care about shared prosperity in this country, and not just 
the rich getting richer, to work together to embark on this entirely 
new journey to fair trade.

                          ____________________