[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 17653-17654]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           RENEGOTIATE CAFTA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, House leadership promised to bring 
the Central American Free Trade Agreement to the floor this week for a 
vote. They have said, Congress will stay here over the weekend until it 
is done.
  The President has said that defeat on CAFTA ``is not an option.'' 
``The cookie jar is open.'' One senior CAFTA supporter, a Member of the 
House, went so far as to say that CAFTA will pass Congress because they 
will ``twist arms until they break into a thousand pieces.''
  CAFTA supporters have resorted to toothless ideals and strong-arm 
tactics because they know this agreement simply cannot pass on its 
merits. CAFTA has languished in Congress for more than a year. Four 
other trade agreements in the last couple of years passed Congress 
within 60 days. This CAFTA, this trade agreement has languished in 
Congress for almost 14 months.
  The reason is this trade agreement, this CAFTA, it was crafted by and 
negotiated by a select few, mostly the oil industry, the insurance 
industry, and the pharmaceutical industry, was crafted by a select few 
for a selected few, and that is why this agreement offends so many.
  Today on the lawn of the Capitol, I joined 22 House Republicans and 
Democrats and more than 350 people representing family farmers and 
ranchers, environmentalists and workers, food safety advocates and 
small manufacturers, all kinds of human rights organizations, religious 
leaders, faith-based groups, and others, all of us in concert speaking 
out against the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
  On the one hand, those supporting CAFTA, we have a very thorough 
group of special interests, again, the drug industry, the insurance 
industry, some of America's largest corporations. On the other hand, 
you have this wide array of people today representing dozens and dozens 
of organizations of both political parties across the political 
spectrum.
  Since April 21, more than 1,000 people have attended Capitol Hill 
news conferences asking the President to renegotiate this failed 
agreement. Democrats and Republicans, legislators from

[[Page 17654]]

Central America, along with grass-roots organizations representing 
workers and farmers and religious organizations in all seven countries, 
in the United States and in the Dominican Republic and in five 
countries in Central America. Those same voices delivered a common 
unified message: renegotiate the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
  Why do they oppose this? The gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) 
showed this chart earlier. One of the reasons we oppose this agreement 
is our trade policy is not working. A dozen years ago I first ran in 
Congress in 1992, 13 years ago. We had a trade deficit in this country 
of $38 billion. Last year, just a dozen years later, that $38 billion 
had exploded into $618 billion. Clearly our trade policy is not 
working.
  But make no mistake. Those of us opposed to this CAFTA do want trade 
with Central America, but we want an agreement that represents us all, 
not a select few. We want an agreement that deserves to pass Congress 
based on its merits, not based on arm twisting, not based on middle-of-
the-night votes, not based on sleazy deals, not based on, as some cases 
we have seen on this floor, out and out bribery.
  We want an agreement that promotes small business, family farmers, 
that promotes ranchers and workers, that promotes food safety and the 
environment and people of faith in all six CAFTA countries and in our 
country.
  We want an agreement that stands in line with our faith and our 
values and promotes the principles of social and economic justice. This 
CAFTA will not do that.
  The people supporting CAFTA, they love to make promises that with 
CAFTA jobs in the U.S. will increase. We will export more to the 
developing world and the standard of living in these poor countries 
will go up. They promised that every time there is a trade agreement. 
They never come true.
  Here, really, is fundamentally the reason that we know, that American 
manufacturers know, that American small business knows, that American 
farmers know that we will not be exporting products to Central American 
countries. The average wage in the United States is $38,000. The 
average wage in El Salvador annually is $4,800; $2,600, Honduras; 
$2,300, Nicaragua.
  The combined economic output of these Central American countries is 
about the same as that of Columbus, Ohio. They simply cannot afford to 
buy our products. This agreement will not allow workers in Central 
America to buy cars made in Dayton or Cincinnati or Toledo or 
Cleveland, Ohio. This agreement will not allow workers in Honduras to 
buy prime beef from Nebraska. It will not allow workers from Guatemala 
to buy software made in Seattle.
  Mr. Speaker, this agreement is about U.S. companies moving plants to 
Honduras, outsourcing jobs to El Salvador, and exploiting cheap labor. 
Renegotiate this CAFTA and produce a better Central American Free Trade 
Agreement.

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