[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 17996]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

                                 ______
                                 
  (At the request of Mr. Daschle, the following statement was ordered 
to be printed in the Record.)

                   FREE TRADE AND WORKER PROTECTIONS

 Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, the Senate will soon consider 
implementing legislation for the Chile and Singapore Free Trade 
Agreements. These FTAs are comprehensive in nature and will serve well 
the interests of the United States and these two very important trading 
partners.
  However, I am increasingly concerned with the notion that the Chile 
and Singapore FTAs should serve as models or templates for future trade 
negotiations. I feel strongly that future negotiations must reflect the 
particular concerns and uniqueness of each trading partner. This seems 
obvious, but those who follow trade negotiations have warned that the 
Bush administration may claim that the standards of the Chile and 
Singapore agreements are universally applicable. I hope those warnings 
are wrong because provisions that are acceptable given the 
circumstances in Chile and Singapore may not be acceptable in 
agreements with countries in very different situations.
  International trade enhances economic opportunity and can serve to 
improve workers' rights. As such, future trade agreements must build 
upon the progress made to date by including comprehensive worker 
protections and strong enforcement provisions.
  Over the past decade, the treatment of labor and environmental issues 
in trade agreements has evolved both in emphasis and enforcement. NAFTA 
represents an early stage in this evolution, addressing labor and 
environmental issues in the context of the agreement, albeit in side 
accords. The United States-Jordan Free Trade Agreement was the first 
FTA to include labor provisions in the actual text of the agreement and 
to subject those provisions to the same dispute settlement procedure as 
all other elements of the agreement.
  Although the Chile and Singapore agreements should be the next step 
forward in this evolution towards strong and effectively enforced labor 
and environmental standards, they are in fact a step back. Unlike the 
United States-Jordan FTA, the only labor provision subject to dispute 
settlement is the requirement that each trading partner enforce its 
existing labor laws. Furthermore, there is no enforcement mechanism to 
ensure that Chile and Singapore will strive to uphold basic 
international labor rights.
  As we pursue future trade agreements, we must encourage policies that 
avoid a downward spiral in working or environmental conditions. Trade 
agreements must be a catalyst to improve these standards. To achieve 
this end, American trade policy must be flexible: we must maintain a 
broad adherence to basic principles and at the same time address the 
unique characteristics of each trading partner.
  Maintaining this flexibility is of utmost importance in our ongoing 
trade negotiations with six Central American countries. These countries 
provide an entirely different set of political and economic conditions 
than Chile, Singapore, and our other FTA partners. The administration 
must not ignore the fact that critical differences exist between the 
CAFTA countries and Chile and Singapore in labor and environmental 
areas. A fully enforceable obligation to adopt and enforce basic labor 
standards will improve the broader socioeconomic dynamics in Central 
America. I have recently written to Ambassador Zoellick on this topic, 
along with Senators Baucus, Bingaman, and Jeffords. We expressed 
concern that the labor rights situation in a number of the Central 
American countries presents concerns of a significant degree different 
from those underlying the negotiations of the United States-Singapore 
and United States-Chile FTAs and urged that the CAFTA negotiations 
ought not be tied to previously negotiated agreements.
  I will monitor progress of future trade negotiations closely and 
fully expect to see substantial progress in several areas. In 
particular, the inclusion of basic worker protections, as well as 
strong monitoring and enforcement provisions, are necessary to meet the 
challenges of an inclusive and progressive trade policy. 

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