Providing for Consideration of H.R. 3045, Dominican Republic-Central Amerca-United States Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 3045, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC-CENTRAL AMERICA-UNITED STATES FREE TRADE AGREEMENT IMPLEMENTATION ACT -- (House of Representatives - July 27, 2005)
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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I have been a strong advocate for free trade and open markets because I believe that the American businesses and workers can compete in a global market. The United States is the most powerful Nation in the world, and it is incumbent upon us to lead, to foster global trade, to engage our partners in a system based on rules and law and to work to raise the living standards of working men and women both at home and abroad.
However, the centrality of free trade in our interdependent world cannot relegate our commitment to working men and women to the peripheral. We must seek to provide a level playing field for American workers and improve living and working conditions for foreign workers by guaranteeing fair wages and basic workplace protections. I have consistently supported legislation and trade agreements that have furthered these goals.
I was hopeful the Bush administration would pursue these objectives in negotiating CAFTA and that we would ultimately be presented an agreement that advanced the cause of free trade, promoted the rule of law, and generated economic development in countries in great need, and extended to U.S. workers, farmers, and businesses the advantages of expanded access to new markets. Regrettably, the agreement before us does not meet these goals.
Specifically, CAFTA fails to ensure the implementation and enforcement of the five core internationally recognized labor rights. Compounding the problem is the failure to allow trade sanctions to enforce the deal's modest labor provisions. In other words, the enforcement structure is absent.
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I am, therefore, regrettably unable to support the Central American Free Trade Agreement for its failure to guarantee basic workplace protections for Central Americans and a level playing field for American workers.
It is interesting, Mr. Speaker, that given the problems that we have with CAFTA, given the questions that have been raised, that the majority is unwilling to give sufficient debate to develop the arguments. This is a critically important issue. NAFTA was an important issue. It was 8 hours of debate. This is one-quarter of that.
We are unable to fully develop the deficiencies in this bill with the 1 hour of debate that the minority will be given. Perhaps that is the point. Perhaps that is the objective. Perhaps the meaning of this rule is to shut us up, shut us out, and shut us down. That is a shame, that my colleagues do not have the confidence in their proposition that they put on this floor to give it a full airing, a full debate in the light of day.
Why do these issues always come up in the late of night? I do not understand that. Oppose this rule. Oppose this bill. It is not good for America. It is not good for the countries that have signed it.
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