[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 14871-14872]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 CENTRAL AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. McHenry). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, last week, finally, and mercifully, 
the national basketball season drew to a close. But the debate on the 
Central American Free Trade Agreement goes on and on and on. Last year, 
during 2004, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), the most powerful 
Republican Member of the House, promised that we would vote by the end 
of the year, by December 31, 2004; promised we would vote on the 
Central American Free Trade Agreement. They clearly did not have enough 
votes to pass it, so he did not bring it up.
  The gentleman from Texas then promised a vote on the Central American 
Free Trade Agreement by Memorial Day. Again, the votes were not there. 
He did not bring it up. Now the gentleman from Texas promised there 
would be a vote on CAFTA by July 4. We leave town tomorrow or Friday. 
Clearly, it will not come up for a vote. Again, the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. DeLay) did not have the votes in order to pass it. The 
reason that the Central American Free Trade Agreement has not been 
voted on by this House is the majority of Members, dozens of 
Republicans and dozens of Democrats, workers in small businesses, 
farmers and ranchers, environmentalists and food safety advocates, the 
religious leaders in the United States, religious leaders in Latin 
America, person after person after person has said to this Congress: 
Renegotiate CAFTA. We do not want this agreement. And the reason that 
people say renegotiate CAFTA and do not vote on this CAFTA or defeat 
this CAFTA is because our trade policy simply is not working.

[[Page 14872]]

  If you look at this chart, 1992, the year I ran for Congress, we had 
a trade deficit in this country of $38 billion. That means we exported 
$38 billion less than we imported. A dozen years later in 2004, last 
year, our trade deficit was $618 billion. From $38 billion to $618 
billion. Clearly, our trade policy in this country is not working. Now 
maybe these are just numbers. These are just trade deficit numbers.
  But Mr. Speaker, if you really look at what that means, that kind of 
trade deficit, it means we are outsourcing, we are losing all kinds of 
manufacturing jobs in our country. This chart of the 50 States shows 
the States, the States in red are States that have lost 20 percent of 
their manufacturing. Those in blue have lost 15 to 20 percent of their 
manufacturing. Ohio, my home State has lost 216,000 manufacturing jobs 
in only 5 years. Pennsylvania, 200,000; New York 222,000; Michigan, 
210,000; Illinois, 214,000. Then you look at Mississippi and Alabama, 
have lost 130,000. The Carolinas, over 300,000. California, 353,000; 
Texas, 2001,000. These are manufacturing jobs that have simply 
disappeared, in large part jobs that have been shipped overseas because 
of failed U.S. trade policies, yet President Bush wants to continue 
this same sort of trade policy that our country has followed.
  And when you look at 216,600 jobs in Ohio, that is just a number, 
too. But think what that means to a community. York Manufacturing in 
Elyria, Ohio, about 5 miles from where I live in Lorain, Ohio, York 
manufacturing shut down, moved a lot of their production to Mexico; 700 
people lost their jobs. That is 700 bread winners did not have jobs. If 
they had jobs at all, they had jobs that paid much less than they were 
making. It hurt the school system in Elyria. It hurt the city, police 
and fire protection in Elyria because the city lost money, lost 
revenue, lost tax dollars. That is what it does to families, what it 
does to communities, what it does to our schools, what it does to our 
States. It clearly is not in the national interest to continue this 
kind of trade policy where we have huge trade deficits getting worse 
every year, and then we have this kind of manufacturing job loss.
  Mr. Speaker, every year, every time there is a trade agreement, the 
President says and he promises that we will have more jobs, more 
manufacturing that will export products overseas and bring up the 
standard of living in those countries. Every time the President 
promises that, every time we pass a trade agreement, the opposite 
happens.
  Mr. Speaker, Ben Franklin said the definition of insanity is doing 
the same thing over and over and over and expecting a different result. 
Yet the President wants to continue this kind of trade policy, as does 
the gentleman from Texas, Majority Leader DeLay, the most powerful 
Republican in this House, and we have the same kind of impact.
  The opposition to CAFTA is broad. We have seen small manufacturers 
and farmers and ranchers. We have seen workers. We have seen religious 
leaders and environmentalists, people in Latin America, people in the 
United States that simply say no to this CAFTA, renegotiate a CAFTA. 
Renegotiate a Central American Free Trade Agreement that works for 
everyone.

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