[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17081]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       OPPOSING CAFTA LEGISLATION

  (Mr. BROWN of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the sugar provisions in the Central 
American Free Trade Agreement would cost U.S. taxpayers $500 million 
over the next 10 years, according to estimates released this week by 
the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO, the arm of 
Congress that estimates the costs of legislation, also found that 
revenues in the U.S. Treasury would fall by $4.4 billion over the same 
10 years if CAFTA is enacted.
  So this trade agreement, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, 
is not just about our trade deficit, which has gone from $38 billion to 
$618 billion in the last 12 years; it is not just about lost jobs, and 
we have lost 3 million jobs, manufacturing jobs alone in the last 5 
years; it is also about busting our budget. It is going to cost us 
jobs, it is going to swell the trade agreement, it is going to cost us 
$4.4 billion, and it does nothing for the people of Central America or 
families in the United States.

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