Statement on House Passage of CAFTA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday July 28, 2005

Statement of the Hon. Rosa L. DeLauro

House Passage of CAFTA

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn.-3) today released the following statement on the U.S. House passage of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

"Mr. Speaker, today Congress draws a line in the sand and says it has had enough of trade agreements that are unfair to America and harmful to our reputation across the world. Today we say enough with agreements that let our competitors reverse engineer our products, manipulate their currency and steal our intellectual property. Enough with agreements that ship good paying American jobs to regions of the world where wages are but a fraction of ours - where environmental and labor standards put already vulnerable families here and abroad at greater risk.

"It has been said that this debate is about globalization. But by rejecting CAFTA, we do not reject globalization, Mr. Speaker. Rather, we set a new path for America - one that embraces globalization's capacity to raise living standards here and across the world, to strike at the heart of poverty, and expand markets that will serve as the foundation of the 21st Century economy.

"Those are America's values, Mr. Speaker, and they ought to be central to this bill. But if these last four years have taught us anything, it is that we do not spread our values by denying our trade partners' citizens the right to affordable generic drugs for diseases like HIV and malaria - this pact prevents developing countries from accessing lower priced generic drugs by granting drug companies new and extended patent protection and additional shelter from price competition. We do not spread American values by exploiting cheap labor, deepening income inequality in the developing world. Indeed, CAFTA's single enforceable workers' rights provision requires only that countries enforce their own labor laws - laws that fail to meet international standards.

"Yet globalization marches on, and America stands idly by, missing one opportunity after another to shape globalization's rules to our benefit and the world's. Already 55,500 workers from my state's once-thriving manufacturing base have been left behind, their jobs shipped overseas. 2.8 million more have been sent abroad nationally, decimating our industrial capacity and leaving us with a $617 billion trade deficit. No one expects this pact to bring these jobs back - the combined purchasing power of the CAFTA is no more than that of my hometown of New Haven, Connecticut. But by including loopholes like one which could allow massive quantities of Chinese yarn, fabric and other products to displace U.S. products, it is hard to imagine this deal will make American companies and workers as competitive in this century's global marketplace as they were in the last. And that must be our goal.

"This is a moment for unity, Mr. Speaker. By rejecting CAFTA, the Congress can say with one voice that how America responds to globalization is too important for the partisanship and divisiveness that have brought us to this point. Only then can we send negotiators back to the table with a clear mission and singular moral purpose. That is what this debate is about, and that is why I urge my colleagues to reject this bill."

http://www.house.gov/delauro/press/2005/July/cafta_vote_07_28_05.html