[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 18955-18956]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     OPPOSING FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 4 minutes.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the free trade 
agreement which has been discussed here today for a variety of reasons. 
I think Members understand that we need to trade and understand that we 
have an obligation to trade, and for our citizens to have an ability to 
trade and to buy goods and services. I think many people in this 
Chamber understand the concept of comparative advantage where certain 
countries have certain strengths and that we need to tap into those 
strengths; but I cannot understand, I am having a difficult time as I 
listen to the previous speakers talk about intellectual property, talk 
about copyrights, talk about piracy, talk about customs, these are 
priorities when we negotiate these agreements.
  The intellectual property has become our priority, and we need to 
protect them, but why when we are negotiating these agreements can we 
not put the same energy and the same conviction into our environmental 
standards, into labor standards, that we believe in in this country and 
that we have stood for for many, many years, the great strides through 
the last century that we have made in the environment, for our labor 
standards, protection of workers, and we are beginning to see the race 
to the bottom where manufacturing jobs leave this country, they go to 
Mexico? They leave Mexico and they go to China because the labor 
standards there and the environmental standards there are so low that 
the capital begins to chase to the lowest common denominator.
  That is the problem I have with these agreements. And the other 
speakers kept talking about the intellectual property and kept talking 
about the copyrights, and that is because those people who want those 
aspects of the agreement protected are sitting at the table. They are 
the ones sitting there negotiating these agreements, and so they are 
making sure that their interests are protected. When are the interests 
of the environment going to be protected in these agreements? When are 
the interests of the labor folks and the workers that are being taken 
advantage of, when are they going to be at the table?
  Mr. Speaker, until they are, I am not going to support these 
agreements. We have an obligation in this country to support and to 
promote our values. The last speaker talked about what the U.S. will 
gain. They will gain goods, services, and protections in intellectual 
property. I want to see trade agreements that not only protect our 
corporations and protect our intellectual property and our copyrights 
because we recognize that those are significant aspects of our society 
and significant aspects of our economy, but I want to see America 
illustrate its values, what we stand for. At this time, especially in 
this country, what do we stand for?
  I believe the citizens of this country stand for a strong commitment 
to our environment and a strong commitment to the working people, the 
average people who at this point in the world are being taken advantage 
of. We talk about free trade, but we do not talk about it when we are 
talking about the African farmer or when we are talking

[[Page 18956]]

about labor and environmental standards.
  I think it is time to even the playing field out, give our workers a 
chance, and let us start exporting what we stand for in this country 
and that is a commitment to the values and the freedoms that we have 
established over many years, and that is the environment and the labor 
standards. We have the political capital to do it; now we just need the 
political will to do it.

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