[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11359-11360]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            NEW CAFTA NEEDED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Davis of Kentucky). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the President and Republican 
leadership were going to ask this Chamber to vote on the Central 
America Free Trade Agreement this week, but apparently because it does 
not have the votes, they will ask us to vote on it in June or July or 
whenever.
  The administration continues, however, to mislead all of us with the 
wrong-headed notion that by exploiting the poor workers and promoting 
the agendas of the largest multinational corporations, that America 
will expand democracy and increase national security. If the 
administration is going to pursue this kind of illogical rhetoric, they 
should answer some questions for us.
  How do we promote national security by privatizing these poor 
nations' water systems and public services?

[[Page 11360]]

How do we promote democracy by inserting provisions in the Central 
American Free Trade Agreement that call for secret international 
tribunals to make decisions affecting America's public health and 
safety laws, thereby undercutting and subverting America's sovereignty?
  How do we promote democracy by extending drug patents beyond U.S. law 
in Central America, making it more difficult for AIDS patients and the 
terminally ill in these nations to receive life-saving medicines?
  How do we promote democracy when pharmaceutical companies and other 
industries well connected to the Bush administration are granted a seat 
at the negotiating table while workers' representatives are excluded?
  More than 40 percent of workers in Central America earn less than $2 
a day, putting them below the global poverty level. How does CAFTA 
ensure that wages will increase to benefit workers?
  If CAFTA helps workers, why does it allow the Central American 
nations to weaken or undercut their already substandard labor laws 
after the agreements is enacted?
  Why are trade sanctions an effective trade enforcement mechanism 
available for violations of intellectual priority provisions of 
agreement, but not for violations of labor and environmental 
provisions? In other words, why do we protect drug companies and not 
protect workers?
  While opponents of CAFTA gather by the hundreds in public places, 
elected Democrats, elected Republicans, union members, environmental 
groups, manufacturers, small farmers, ranchers, environmentalists, we 
meet out in the open, but CAFTA supporters hunker down behind closed 
doors to manipulate backdoor deals.
  With all the talk of democracy, why the secrecy, Mr. Speaker?
  Proponents of the status quo argue that free trade promotes 
democracy, but then they turn a blind eye to human rights abuses, to 
coerced labor, to slave labor, to child labor. Supporters of CAFTA 
conveniently fail to mention that democracy in Mexico recently suffered 
a severe setback when Mexico's legislatures voted to strip the popular 
Mayor of Mexico City, and their political rival, of official immunity 
on a technicality; the goal was to imprison him and knock him out of 
the 2006 election.
  The U.S. State Department remains silent. Mexico now ranks as one of 
the world's ten largest economies. While overall wealth increased since 
passing the North America Free Trade Agreement, poverty has also 
increased. In Mexico, 10 percent of the population controls 50 percent 
of the Nation's wealth and 50 percent of the nation's citizens live in 
poverty. That was the legacy of NAFTA, the dysfunctional cousin of 
CAFTA.
  There is no burgeoning middle class in Mexico, just another of 
NAFTA's failed promises. How can the administration say this income 
disparity and persistent inequality is progress. We promote democracy 
instead, Mr. Speaker, by ensuring prosperity for all, not just a select 
few. This CAFTA fails to do that.
  We protect our own borders and security by protecting workers and 
families in our sister countries by raising wages and improving their 
living standards. This CAFTA fails to do that.
  We help our neighbors at home and overseas by creating healthy and 
safe communities through worker protections and investments in the 
environment. This CAFTA fails to do that.
  We ensure democracy when we conduct trade negotiations openly and 
publicly, not by doing so behind closed doors and protecting the drug 
industry. CAFTA's negotiators failed to do that.
  This CAFTA fails to promote fair trade. It fails to protect workers 
and the environment. It fails to raise living standards either in the 
United States or in the Central America nations.
  I support trade with our good friends and neighbors in Central 
America. I strongly support trade with our friends and neighbors in 
Central America, but not this Central American Free Trade Agreement.
  This CAFTA is dead in the water. The President signed it a year ago. 
We still have not voted on it. It is time to renegotiate a better 
CAFTA, one that benefits all, not just a few, one that all Members of 
Congress and the American people can support.

                          ____________________