[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16507]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           RENEGOTIATE CAFTA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fortenberry). 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 year, this Congress was promised 
a vote on the Central American Free Trade Agreement by the end of 2004. 
December 31 came and went. Then, at a White House news conference, the 
President called on Congress to pass the Central American Free Trade 
Agreement by Memorial Day. May 31 came and went. In June, Congress was 
again promised a vote, which was supposed to have been before July 4. 
Independence Day came and went.
  Why, Mr. Speaker? Because dozens of Republicans and Democrats, 
including my friends who are joining us tonight, the gentleman from 
Idaho (Mr. Otter) and the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones), 
earlier the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) and the gentlewoman 
from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) and others, because of the strong opposition by 
both parties, from small farmers and ranchers to organized labor, from 
small manufacturers to environmentalists, from religious leaders, from 
Catholic bishops in Central America and the Dominican Republic, to 
Lutheran and Presbyterian and Jewish and Episcopal leaders in our 
country, all of us speak with one strong, united voice: renegotiate the 
Central American Free Trade Agreement.
  Those of us opposed to this CAFTA do want a trade agreement with 
Central America; but we want a trade agreement, as the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Jones) says, that benefits our whole Nation, not 
just a few; not one crafted, not a trade agreement crafted, negotiated 
by a select few for a select few.
  As the President travels the Nation trying to sell this CAFTA to the 
American public, he is hearing firsthand from U.S. workers, from small 
business owners and family farmers and family ranchers and religious 
leaders that they do not want this CAFTA, either. Their message, as is 
the message coming from us in this body in both parties, is loud and 
clear: renegotiate this Central American Free Trade Agreement.
  In response to the President's trip this past Friday to North 
Carolina, a newspaper headline read: ``Bush Sells Trade Pact in Hostile 
Territory.'' A Huntsville Times Alabama editorial on Sunday reads: 
``Say No to the Central American Free Trade Agreement.'' A Wall Street 
Journal headline, a newspaper traditionally very supportive of trade 
agreements, a Wall Street Journal headline yesterday read: ``Cafta is 
No Cure-All For Central America.''
  This CAFTA represents more than a decade of failed trade policies. 
Just look what has happened with our trade policies just since the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) and I in 1992 came to this 
Congress. In 1992 we had a trade deficit in this country of $38 
billion. That means we sold $38 billion less, exported, than we 
imported. In 2004, last year, that trade deficit was $618 billion. It 
went from $38 billion to $618 billion in just a dozen years. How do we 
argue that our trade policy is working when our trade deficit has gone 
from $38 billion to $618 billion, and all of the lost manufacturing 
jobs in North Carolina and Idaho and California and Illinois and all 
over this country, including my State of Ohio? How do you argue that 
our trade policy is working?
  CAFTA, Mr. Speaker, has languished in Congress for more than a year. 
Normally, trade agreements are voted on within 60 days. It passed the 
Senate by the narrowest margin ever of any trade agreement in that 
body. That is because we know this agreement is a continuation of the 
North American Free Trade Agreement, a dysfunctional cousin of NAFTA, a 
trade agreement which failed to live up to its lofty promises.
  It is the same old story. Every time there is a trade agreement, 
whether it is Bill Clinton or whether it is George Bush, they tell us 
three things: they say more jobs for Americans, they say more 
manufactured products exported from the U.S. overseas, and they say 
that it will mean better wages for workers and a higher standard of 
living for people in the developing world. With every trade agreement, 
these promises fall flat.
  Benjamin Franklin said the definition of insanity is doing the same 
thing over and over and over and expecting a different outcome. That is 
what has happened with our trade agreements. This CAFTA will not enable 
Central American workers to buy cars made in Toledo, Ohio or software 
developed in Seattle or textiles and apparel from North Carolina or 
prime beef from Nebraska. This CAFTA is about U.S. companies moving 
plants to Honduras, outsourcing jobs to Guatemala, exploiting cheap 
labor in El Salvador.
  I will make one prediction, Mr. Speaker. If CAFTA comes up next week, 
they will call it up in the middle of the night, they will hold the 
rollcall open for several hours, they will twist arms to try to get 
this agreement passed. Instead, we should throw out this failed 
agreement, go back to the drawing board, renegotiate a CAFTA that lifts 
workers up, that makes sense for workers in all seven CAFTA countries, 
including our own.
  When the world's poorest people, Mr. Speaker, can buy American 
products and not just make them, then we will know that our trade 
policies are finally working.

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