[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 93 (Monday, June 11, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H6213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1945
               FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS WITH PERU AND PANAMA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, soon President Bush's administration will 
force upon this Congress consideration of free trade agreements with 
Peru and Panama under the fast-track process. That means no amendments 
allowed here in the Congress.
  The bills they will bring before us are modeled on the flawed NAFTA 
model that have yielded growing trade deficits every year the Bush 
administration has been in office. We have seen how NAFTA sucked good 
jobs away from Americans, how it ravaged the Mexican countryside and 
triggered a flow of illegal immigrants, drugs and violence across our 
southern border.
  Our staggering trade deficit with Mexico continues to grow. This 
year, we already have a $21.6 billion deficit with Mexico, and it will 
continue to swell as communities across the continent face job washout.
  If we do not construct a new trade model that takes people into 
consideration and advocates free trade among free people, then it does 
not matter how many environmental provisions we may add to trade 
agreements or how unique the administration claims its labor provisions 
are.
  We are simply extending NAFTA to the rain forest and to more sweat 
shops because there will be no reliable enforcement.
  We have seen the NAFTA model fail in Mexico. We have seen it fail in 
CAFTA countries. Why should we assume it will be any less disastrous in 
Peru or Panama?
  We cannot fall for empty promises again. When we were told that NAFTA 
would result in a trade surplus, when we were told that NADBANC would 
help communities that were faced with job loss with reinvestment, when 
we were told NAFTA would be beneficial for Mexicans, Canadians, and the 
legislation passed this Congress, what did we see? Billions and 
billions of trade deficit dollars racked up.
  We have never had a positive trade balance with the NAFTA countries 
or the CAFTA countries. We saw a washout of jobs in our middle-class 
communities, and we saw huge and growing protests across Mexico. It's a 
mistake to pass NAFTA, and it will be a mistake to extend it to other 
countries without comprehensive and effective reform.
  This time Congress must be smarter. We must realize the 
administration is feeding us empty promises without enforceability and 
clear benefits. We should have no reason to be fooled again.
  Even if we succeed with some changes to the core text of these 
agreements, do we trust President Bush to enforce them? We are still 
waiting for him to enforce the flagrant violations in the Jordanian 
agreement, where such language was included in the core of the trade 
agreement.
  It is bad enough that his administration has the power to avoid any 
meaningful congressional amendment or any amendment at all. We cannot 
trust President Bush with fairly negotiating trade agreements, and we 
certainly cannot trust him to fairly enforce them.
  If Congress passes these agreements with Peru and Panama, we only 
stand to perpetuate the race to the bottom cycle of lowered wages, 
reduced benefits worldwide, by taking these steps under the slippery 
slope of the Bush trade agreement that rewards Wall Street and its 
investors, but penalizes main streets across our Nation.

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