[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 22]
[House]
[Pages 30590-30591]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           PERU TRADE AGREEMENT BY, FOR AND ABOUT WALL STREET

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. It's a beautiful day within the DC beltway. And under 
the dome, another day, another free trade agreement. But on Main Street 
America, things are not so bright. The dollar is dropping like a rock 
with skyrocketing oil and gas prices.
  We are borrowing $2 billion a day from overseas to buy things that we 
don't make here in America anymore. We have lost 5 million 
manufacturing jobs, 40,000 in Oregon. But this isn't the same old 
failed trade policy, they tell us. Not yet another platform to exploit 
cheap labor. It is decorated with negligible evironmental and labor 
protections.
  And the burgeoning middle class in Peru, all 3 of them, are going to 
go on an orgy of buying U.S. goods after this passes. But the 
destructive, multinational, corporate-written chapter 11 core that led 
to the failure of NAFTA, CAFTA and other trade agreements remains at 
the center of this policy.
  This agreement is by, for and about Wall Street, plain and simple. It 
doesn't address our current economic crisis. It is not in the best 
interest of American workers, the U.S. economy, or our national 
security.

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