[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16718]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          CAFTA IS NOT WORKING

  (Mr. BROWN of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I sit here a bit incredulously 
listening to my colleagues brag about U.S. trade policy. The reason 
CAFTA has not come for a vote, even though it has been promised to have 
been brought forward four times, is because Democrats and Republicans 
and small manufacturers and labor and small ranchers and family farmers 
and environmentalists and religious leaders in Central America and 
religious leaders in this country oppose the Central American Free 
Trade Agreement.
  Why? Because a dozen years ago we had a $38 billion trade deficit in 
this country. Last year we had a $618 billion trade deficit. That has 
translated into 3.5 million lost manufacturing jobs in the last 5 years 
alone.
  Our trade policy, Mr. Speaker, simply is not working. It may be 
working for investors, but it is not working for farmers, it is not 
working for small business. It is not working for consumers and 
environmentalists and workers and for our communities.

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