[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16282]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            SUPPORTING CAFTA

  (Mr. CONAWAY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CONAWAY. Mr. Speaker, it is my honor tonight to rise in support 
of the CAFTA agreement, DR-CAFTA. It is important in three broad areas. 
One is trade. It is important to American manufacturers that the 
tariffs that they currently pay with goods and services built and made 
in the United States are sold into these countries.
  It is also important for the agricultural interests in this country 
that we continue to send American goods and products into these 
countries for use under the Caribbean Basin Initiative.
  It is also important from a national security standpoint. These are 
fledgling democracies in Central America. America is a safer place if 
we have democracies in place than if we have other forms of government. 
This trade agreement will help undergird these democracies and help 
them stand against influences like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela who does 
not have America's interests in his plans.
  It is also important from an immigration standpoint. The Caribbean 
Basin Initiative will expire on its own terms in 2008. If those jobs 
created under that initiative go to other parts of the world like 
Thailand or the Philippines, then the people currently holding those 
jobs will feel pressured, percolating up from Mexico and entering this 
country illegally, to find work.
  So, given the importance the impact of CAFTA will have on these broad 
areas, I stand in support of it and urge my colleagues to support it 
also.

                          ____________________