[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 7902-7903]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                            TRADE WITH CHINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, here in Congress, we say we stand 
together and in our commitment toward the spread of democratic ideals 
and improvement of the human rights. These last couple weeks I am not 
so sure.
  During the weeks approaching the vote for Permanent Normal Trade 
Relations for the People's Republic of China, corporate CEOs flocked to 
the Hill to lobby for increase unrestricted trade with China.
  They talk about access to 1.2 billion potential consumers in China. 
What they do not say is that their real interest is in 1.2 billion 
Chinese workers, workers whom they pay wage on the level of slave 
labor.
  These CEOs will tell us, increase trade with China will allow human 
rights to improve. Democracy will flourish with increased free trade as 
we engage with China. But as these CEOs speak, their companies 
systematically violate the most fundamental of human and worker rights.
  In the new report ``Made in China, The Role of U.S. Companies in 
Denying Human and Worker Rights,'' released by Charles Kernaghan and 
the National Labor Committee, we see evidence of American corporations 
exploiting the horrible conditions of human rights in the People's 
Republic of China.
  Companies such as Huffy and Nike and Wal-Mart are contracting with 
Chinese sweatshops to export to the United States, often with the 
assistance of repressive and corrupt local government authorities. 
1,800 Huffy bicycle workers have lost their jobs in Ohio as Huffy shut 
down its last three remaining U.S. plants over the last 17 months. In 
July of 1998, Huffy fired 850 workers from its Celina, Ohio plant where 
workers earned $17 an hour. Huffy now outsources all of its production 
to developing nations, such as China, where laborers are forced to work 
15 hours a day, 7 days a week and earn an average of 33 cents an hour, 
less than 2 percent of what Ohio Huffy bicycle workers earned.
  Wal-Mart makes its line of Kathie Lee Gifford handbags in China. 
There are a thousand workers at the factory, where they put in 14-hour 
shifts, 7 days a week, 29 or 30 days a month, one off day per month. 
The average wage of the factory is 3 cents an hour.
  Workers live in factory dormitories housed 16 in a room. Their ID 
documents have been confiscated; they are allowed to leave the factory 
only for one and a half hours a day. For half of all factory workers, 
rent for the dormitory exceeds their wages. Workers earn nothing at all 
and, in many cases, owe the company money. These people are indentured 
servants to Kathie Lee and to Wal-Mart. Some would simply call it 
slavery.
  The findings in Charles Kernaghan's report illustrates why democratic 
countries in the developing world are losing ground to more 
authoritarian countries in the developing world. Democratic nations, 
such as India, are losing out to more totalitarian governments such as 
China. Democratic nations such as Taiwan are losing out to more 
authoritarian governments such as Indonesia where people are not free 
and workers do as their told.
  The share of developing country exports to the U.S. from democratic 
nations fell from 53 percent 10 years ago to 35 percent today. 
Corporate America wants to do business with countries with docile 
workforces that earn below-poverty wages and are not allowed to 
organize to bargain collectively.
  In manufactured goods, developing democracies' share of developing 
country exports fell 21 percent from 56 to 35 percent. Corporations are 
relocating their manufacturing bases to more authoritarian regimes from 
democratic countries where workers do not talk back for fear of being 
punished.
  Madam Speaker, western corporations want to invest in countries that 
have poor environmental standards, no worker benefits, below-poverty 
wages, no opportunities to bargain collectively, and worse, as 
developing countries make progress toward democracy, as they increase 
worker rights and create regulations to protect the environment, the 
American business community punishes them by pulling its trade and 
investment from developing democratic countries to totalitarian 
governments and developing countries.
  Decisions about the Chinese economy are made by three groups, the 
Chinese Communist party, the People's Liberation Army, which owns many 
of the export factories, and western investors. Which of these three 
want to empower workers?

[[Page 7903]]

  Does the Chinese Communist worker want the Chinese people to enjoy 
human rights? I do not think so. Does the People's Liberation Army want 
to close the labor camps? I do not think so. Do western investors want 
Chinese workers to make better wages, have more democracy and bargain 
collectively? I do not think so.
  None of these groups has any interest in changing the status quo in 
China. I repeat, none of these groups, western investors, the Chinese 
Communist Party, the People's Liberation Army, none of these has any 
interest in changing the current situation in China. All three profit 
too much from the status quo to want to see human rights and labor 
rights improve in China.
  U.S. trade law forbids the trade of any products of slave labor, 
forced labor. The 1992 bilateral agreement between the U.S. and China 
prohibited the trade of goods manufactured by imprisoned workers.
  Congress needs to know more about working conditions in Chinese 
factories before we vote on permanent MFN for China. American people 
need to know more about how our major corporations are behaving outside 
the borders of the United States before we vote on permanent MFN for 
China.
  Based on evidence released into the Kernaghan Report, many of us in 
the Congress call on the Department of Labor and the Department of 
Treasury to conduct an extensive investigation into the working 
conditions and factories in China which are owned by American 
corporations, or where American corporations contract to manufacture 
their products before we vote on MFN for China. These investigations 
should report back its findings and a decision should be made as to 
whether any conditions in China violate U.S. law.
  Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to demand action to investigate 
these claims.

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