[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13258-13259]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                 CAFTA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, at the White House news conference 
early this month, President Bush called on Congress to pass the Central 
American Free Trade Agreement this summer. Earlier this month, the most 
powerful Republican in Congress, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), 
promised a vote by July 4. Well, actually last year he promised a vote 
during 2004. Then he promised by Memorial Day that we would vote on 
CAFTA. Now, I think he means it this time, now he is saying we are 
going to vote on CAFTA by July 4.
  As Congress waits for the next CAFTA vote countdown to begin, while 
we wait and wait and wait, many of us who have been speaking out, on 
both sides of the aisle, dozens of Republicans and dozens of Democrats 
have a message to the President and to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
DeLay), renegotiate the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
  President Bush signed CAFTA almost 13 months ago. Every trade 
agreement negotiated by this administration, Morocco, Chile, Singapore, 
Australia, has been voted on within 60 days of the President's signing 
the agreement. But CAFTA has been 13 months. It has languished in 
Congress for more than a year without a vote because this wrong-headed 
trade agreement offends Republicans and Democrats.
  It offends small business people and farmers and ranchers. It offends 
Central American workers and American workers. It offends advocates for 
food safety and the environment. Just look at what has happened with 
our trade policy, and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) and the 
President want more of the same.
  Look at what has happened to our trade policy in the last dozen 
years. The year that I came to Congress, the same year that the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez) came to Congress, we were 
elected in 1992, that year the U.S. had a $38 billion trade deficit, 
meaning we imported $38 billion more than we exported. 12 years later, 
a dozen years later, last year, our trade deficit went from $38 billion 
12 years later to $618 billion.
  It is hard to argue that our trade policy is working when the deficit 
goes from $38 billion and balloons to $618 billion in just a dozen 
years.

[[Page 13259]]

  But, it is more than just some numbers, Mr. Speaker, on a trade 
deficit, it is also job loss. In the last 6 years, manufacturing jobs 
alone, the States in red have lost 20 percent or more of their 
manufacturing base. Michigan has lost 210,000 manufacturing jobs, 
Illinois, 224, Ohio 216, Pennsylvania 199, New Jersey over 100,000 
Alabama and Mississippi together, 130,000 jobs.
  The States in blue have lost 15 to 20 percent of their manufacturing 
jobs. Texas, 201,000. California 354,000. It is pretty clear our trade 
policy is not working, Mr. Speaker. Opponents to CAFTA know that it is 
an extension of the North American Free Trade Agreement, a 
dysfunctional cousin of NAFTA, for all intents and purposes.
  It did not work then, it is not working now. It is the same old 
story. Every time there is a trade agreement in front of Congress, the 
President says it will mean more jobs for Americans. The President 
promises, we will manufacture more products and export them abroad. The 
President promises it will raise the standard of living in the 
countries of our trading partners, and the developing countries.
  Yet, with every trade agreement their promises fall by the wayside in 
favor of big business interests, not small business interests, big 
business interests that sends U.S. jobs overseas and exploit cheap 
labor abroad.
  Ben Franklin said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing 
over and over and over and expecting a different result. We hear the 
same promises on the same kind of trade agreements, and we get the same 
negative results. In the face of overwhelming bipartisan opposition, 
Republican leadership and the administration have tried every trick in 
the book to pass this CAFTA and they failed.
  Now, they have opened the bank. Desperate after failing to gin up 
support for the agreement based on its merits, CAFTA supporters are now 
attempting to buy votes with their fantastic promises. If history is an 
example, Members should beware of these promises. Fewer than 20 
percent, 14 out of 92 trade promises from the administration in the 
last dozens years, 14 out of 92 trade promises, less than 20 percent, 
were ever realized.
  The White House will make all kinds of promises to Members on both 
sides of the aisle, but do not be suckers, it is going to happen again 
and again and again. Instead of wasting with toothless side deals, 
Ambassador Portman should renegotiate a trade deal, a CAFTA that will 
pass Congress.
  Republicans and Democrats, labor and business, farmers and ranchers, 
religious leaders in Central America, religious leaders in the United 
States, environmental and human rights organizations in all seven 
countries are speaking with one voice: Defeat this CAFTA and 
renegotiate a CAFTA that lifts up workers in both countries.
  Mr. Speaker, a worker in the United States averages about $38,000 a 
year in wages. The Dominican Republic about $6,000, Honduras about 
$2,600, Nicaragua 2,300. A Nicaraguan worker who earns $2,300 a year 
cannot buy cars made in Ohio, cannot buy prescription drugs 
manufactured in New Jersey, cannot buy textiles and apparel from North 
Carolina, cannot buy software from Seattle, cannot buy prime cut beef 
from Nebraska.
  Mr. Speaker, this agreement is about outsourcing jobs to El Salvador, 
exploiting cheap labor in Guatemala. When the world's poorest people 
can buy American products, not just make them, then you know our trade 
policy will finally have succeeded.

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