[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 92 (Thursday, June 18, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1487]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  PAKISTAN ENDURING ASSISTANCE AND COOPERATION ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2009

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 11, 2009

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 1886. Though 
the bill takes steps in the right direction by providing badly needed 
assistance to Pakistan, it also includes a dangerous trade provision 
that undermines the otherwise benevolent parts of the bill. The bill 
grants duty free treatment for textiles and clothing produced in 
certain regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan called Reconstruction 
Opportunity Zones (ROZs).
  With the existing instability in war-torn Afghanistan and the 
increasingly unstable conditions in ROZ designated areas of Pakistan, 
there is little reason to think that labor and environmental 
protections that are critical in any trade environment can be 
adequately enforced.
  The United States has granted this sort of trade preference before. 
In 2006, The New York Times reported that U.S. trade preferences in the 
country of Jordan for textiles and apparel beginning in 1994, followed 
by a Free Trade Agreement in 2001, had brought about sweatshop 
conditions for a guest workforce imported from Bangladesh and China. 
Trade preferences will not benefit local populations in Afghanistan and 
Pakistan if an imported workforce is employed in factories producing 
duty-free goods.
  This bill imposes a U.S. trade policy with a track record of 
undermining stability and economic security on nations for which the 
U.S. purports to provide stability and security. Our foreign policy 
should promote economic stability worldwide, thereby eliminating the 
true roots of terrorism: desperation. The bill calls on the Obama 
Administration to put forth a comprehensive security strategy that will 
eliminate U.S. concerns about terrorist threats and safe havens in 
Pakistan and the region. But it includes a trade provision that 
undermines stated U.S. foreign policy goals in Pakistan. As such, I 
must oppose H.R. 1886.

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