Withdrawing Approval of the United States from Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization
WITHDRAWING APPROVAL OF THE UNITED STATES FROM AGREEMENT ESTABLISHING THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION -- (House of Representatives - June 09, 2005)
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, let me begin by mentioning that this is a tripartisan resolution, and I want to thank our cosponsors: the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan), the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Grijalva), the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hostettler), the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich), the gentleman from T exas (Mr. Paul), the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner), the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Stupak) and the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo). I thank them very much for their support.
Mr. Speaker, I do not have any great illusions that this resolution will win today. When the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul) offered it 5 years ago, it only received 56 votes. I hope, however, that as many Members as possible will vote for it today for one simple reason. It is ti me to send the Bush administration a message and a wake-up call that our current trade policies have failed and need to be completely rethought so that they represent the needs of the middle class and working families of our country and not just the CEOs of large corporations.
Mr. Speaker, international trade is a good thing, if implemented properly, but the evidence is overwhelming that our current trade policies, including NAFTA, including permanent normal trade relations with China, and the current r oles of the WTO are not working for average Americans, they are not working for the environment, and they are not working for human rights. If we do not fundamentally change those policies, we can only expect more of the same.
The WTO was signed in 1995, and our current support of unfettered free trade has gone on for some 30 years. And what has been the result of those policies for the middle class of this country? Let us discuss it.
In a period in which technology has exploded, in a period in whic h worker productivity has significantly increased, we would think that the middle class would be better off.
But the economic reality today is that what every American knows is that the middle class of this country is collapsing. Poverty is increasing, and the gap between the rich and the poor is wider today than at any time since the 1920s. Are our disastrous trade policies the only reason for this? No. But they are an extremely important part of that equation, and that is for sure.
Mr. Speaker, in 1995 when the WTO was established, our trade deficit was $96 billion. Today our trade deficit is a record-breaking $617 billion and is on pace to become $700 billion next year. Our trade deficit with China alone is $162 billion.
Mr. Speaker, while some of my colleagues are going to extol all of the wonderful virtues of unfettered free trade, perhaps they can explain why in the last 4 years alone we have lost 2.8 million good-paying manufacturing jobs, one out of six in this country. One out of six in the last 4 years. In my own small State of Vermont, we have lost 20 percent of our manufacturing jobs in the last 5 years. Many people know that General Motors has just announced they are going to lay off another 25,000 American workers. GM is producing cars in China, and there is some reason to fear that in 10 or 20 years, Detroit and automobile production in this country will be diminished as car manufacturing moves to China.
When my friends come up here and they tell us how great free trade is for our economy, I want them to explain why real inflation accounted for wages in the United States today is 7 percent lower than they were in 1973 for the bottom 90 percent of workers. And why is it that million of workers today in Vermont and throughout this country are forced to work two or three jobs just to keep the ir heads above water if free trade and globalization are all so great?
When my friends talk about the so-called robust economy that has been created, perhaps they can explain to us why 4 million more Americans now live in poverty than just 4 years ago, 4 million more Americans in poverty; and why incredibly there are 24,000 fewer private sector jobs now than when George Bush first took office. If our trade policies are so successful, how could we have experienced an unprecedented net loss of private sec tor jobs over the last 5 years? The only new net jobs that have been created by the Bush administration have been government jobs, 917,000 of them. Maybe the Republican Party is becoming the party of big government and creating government jobs, but certainly it has not been private sector jobs that free trade is supposed to create.
Today the gap between the rich and the poor is growing wider. The richest 1 percent of our population now own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent, and unfettered free trad e has only made that worse. The gap between the rich and the poor more than doubled from 1979 to 2000. According to the Institute for International Economics, 39 percent of the increase in income equality is due to unfettered free trade.
Further and most ominously, if our present trade and economic policies continue, the likelihood is that the next generation will be the first in the modern history of the United States to have a lower standard of living than we do. According to a recent report from the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor statistics, over the next decade, seven out of the 10 fastest-growing occupations will be low-paying, low-skilled jobs that do not require a college education. Is that what free trade is giving to our kids, jobs at Wal-Mart, jobs at McDonald's, while the General Motors jobs, the General Electric jobs are going to China?
Mr. Speaker, it is not only blue collar jobs that we are on the cusp of losing. Millions of white collar information technology jobs are also on the line to go to China and India. Andy Grove, the founder of Intel, predicts that the United States will lose the bulk of its information technology to jobs to China and India within the next decade.
Mr. Speaker, the bottom line of this debate, and I want my friends to answer this, is that American workers should not be asked to compete against desperate people in China who make 30 cents an hour and who go to jail when they stand up for their political rights. That is not what we should be engaged in. The race to the bottom has been a disaster for the middle class.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
My good friend mentioned what has happened since China has joined the WTO. I think he has neglected to mention that our trade deficit with China has soared, that millio ns of jobs have left the United States to go to China.
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters)
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
To begin with, at a time when there is so much animosity and partisanship in this body, I am very pleased that what we have brought forth together is a true tripartisan effort.
I want to thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul), the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan), the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Grijalva), the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hostettler), the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich), the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner), the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Stupak), and the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo) for cosponsoring this amendment and, as I think most people know, that covers a very, very broad spectrum of political thought.
Mr. Speaker, some have argu ed against this resolution by saying it would be a disaster if it were passed, that we would be withdrawing from the international economy, but the reality is that what we are trying to do here is not to withdraw from international trade. Trade is a good thing. What we are saying is let us send a message to the President of the United States to wake up and to fully recognize that our current trade policies are an unmitigated failure and that we have got to renegotiate them. We cannot continue on the policy of the race to the bottom. That has got to change.
Some of my friends say what we are talking about is international rules, and of course we are talking about international rules. The problem is that the rules within this WTO are rigged against the middle class of America. If the United States Congress said, wait a second, we are going to pass a law because we think it is unfair that slave labor in China is producing a product that is exported to the United States, or that child labor around the world is competing against American workers, we will be ruled incorrect by the WTO. A complaint will be waged against us saying, gee, why are you protesting slave labor or child labor? You are violating international free trade.
Another issue that has not been touched on today, a moral issue, which is very important, when I was mayor of the City of Burlington in the 1980s, we passed, as did cities throughout the country, as did the United States Congress, legislation which said to the apartheid regime w hich had then imprisoned Nelson Mandela, we are going to impose trade restrictions against an apartheid regime. Mr. Speaker, if that occurred today, if the City of Burlington, Vermont, the State of Vermont, the United States Congress, said we want to bring down economically some type of fascistic government running the country, that country would go to the WTO and the WTO would say, gee, you are in violation of free trade agreements. It does not matter the morality of the issue. The only thing that matters is unfettered free trade.
Mr. Speaker, what my friends on the other side of this debate have really failed to discuss is the impact of the unfettered trade policies that we have been developing over the last 30 years. You have not heard them say really one word about that. Yes, they have talked about economic growth that is taking place in America, but they forgot to tell you who was benefiting from that economic growth. They have forgotten to tell you that for the average American worker his or her wag es have gone down significantly in the last 30 years.
Yes, the wealthiest people in this country are making out like bandits. Yes, there has been a doubling in the gap between the rich and the poor. That is true. Yes, CEOs of large corporations make 400 times what their workers make. Is that the free trade agreement that we are fighting for?
The reality is, and they know it, Republicans know it, Democrats, conservatives, progressives, when going back to their district. In my State in the last couple of months, I had to talk to workers whose jobs are gone because those companies could not compete against imports coming in from China where workers are paid 30 cents an hour.
I would yield a moment to my friends on the other side if they want to tell the American people that they think it is fair that our working people should have to compete against desperate people working for pennies an hour who go to jail when they stand up for their rights. I would yield to the gentleman from Florida, the gentlem an from Maryland, or anyone else who wants to tell me now that that is fair. I do not hear anybody saying that it is fair.
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. SANDERS. I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, I believ e that is unfair. I agree with my colleague completely. The question is, why are we not negotiating with our trading partners to do something about that?
Mr. SANDERS. Taking back my time, and I thank the gentleman. He says that it is unfair. But we have had this trade agreement, we have been in the WTO for 10 years. We have had a Democratic President. We have had a Republican President. If it is unfair, why is the President of the United States not going to the WTO tomorrow ? Why did Bill Clinton not go? I do not want to be partisan here. Why did neither of them go? And they are not going to go.
The issue here is that these trade agreements have been forced on Congress, not forced, Congress willfully did it, because of the power of big money. It is no secret. Some of us who were here for NAFTA, some of us here for the China agreement, we know the millions and millions of dollars in campaign contributions and huge lobbying effort on the part of the large corporations. Becau se the truth of the matter is that while unfettered free trade is a disaster for the middle class and working families of this country, it really does benefit the heads of large corporations. They are, in fact, doing very well.
We see General Electric, General Motors moving to China. That is not a good thing for Americans.
Let me conclude simply by saying, Mr. Speaker, let us send the President of the United States a message. Let us say that our current trade policies are failing. Let us stand up fo r working families around the country. Let us pass this resolution.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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