Failed Trade Policy
Floor Speech
FAILED TRADE POLICY -- (House of Representatives - March 26, 2007)
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Ms. KAPTUR. Congressman Michaud, thank you so much for bringing us together tonight and for your great contributions to this debate. That is probably the major economic debate this Nation faces. It is a real pleasure to be here with you this evening. I thank you for yielding me some time.
And to Congressman Phil Hare from Illinois, who has just hit the ground running here and who I think is such a tremendous addition to our membership and to this great struggle for the cause of all people in our country, the dignity of their work, the future for their families and the future of our communities.
And to Congressman Steve Lynch of Massachusetts, who works so respectably as an ironworker. He looks like that man that they have on that iron beam over New York City, that famous poster. Whenever I look at him, I think I see him. He is the one who is swinging the golf club with the ball or something.
It is a pleasure to be here with these gentlemen tonight, because they have all worked for a living, their families have worked for a living, and we need more people who bring this experience to the Congress of the United States.
The plant that Congressman Michaud discussed, Champion spark plugs, no longer exists in Toledo. Back when I was first elected, we tried so hard to get the Japanese to buy the spark plugs, the best plugs that were made in the whole country, Champion spark plugs.
I took them to Japan in 1985, and I said to Prime Minister Nakasone, ``Your companies aren't buying from our premier companies.'' Our trade deficit was beginning to really get bad back then, so I said, ``So I would like to suggest that we give you these plugs for free for your manufacturers, and let them try them.''
And we learned a lot about the keiratsu system of Japan and what a closed system indeed it is and that other companies couldn't bid into that production and that these very tight buying chains exist globally. Japan has been eating our lunch in the automotive market for a very long time now, but the Japanese market still remains closed, with less than 3 percent of the cars on their streets from anywhere else in the world. They didn't even take Yugos or bugs, VW bugs. So that market is a closed market, and we began to see how difficult it was to engage in trade with nations who truly were protectionists.
Congressman Hare talked about protectionist countries. You can see pretty clearly which ones they are when you look at what is on their shelves and what is on their streets.
I am here tonight to say that I have never supported fast track, because I don't believe Congress should ever let a fast ball go through here that we don't grab ahold of. And the problem is you can't amend a trade agreement. So even if you want to, as happened when we debated NAFTA, I can't remember a more piercing debate in this Congress other than votes on war. That NAFTA debate was the most significant economic debate we had here in 1993; and at the time that we debated that, it was purposefully brought to the floor in a way that we could not amend.
So let me just take one issue. We are going to have discussions this year on the issue of immigration. When that bill came down here, there were many of us who said we have to deal with the displacement that is going to happen in Mexico in the farm sector, because there is no transition provision in NAFTA and no currency exchange, that we knew that the Mexican farmers were going to be thrown off of their community oriented farming ejido systems. It has happened. No one wants to recognize it has happened, but over 2 million people were disgorged from their villages and towns, and they are wandering the continent, providing an endless stream of labor that is dirt cheap there and here. It is almost as if they didn't want us to talk about it because that fast track bill came through here.
Now, the NAFTA model is being used, they want to expand it to Colombia, they want to put it to Peru.
I wanted to say a word about Colombia this evening. I agree with Congressman Michaud. There is no nation in the world that allows the assassination of their labor leaders more than Colombia. Why would we want to sign a free trade agreement with a country that isn't free? Our cardinal rule ought to be: Free trade among free people.
When we look at what happened in Colombia recently, Chiquita brands, remember Chiquita Banana, which is headquartered in my State of Ohio, has just pleaded guilty to funding terrorism in Colombia. Several what are called unidentified high-ranking corporate officers of a subsidiary of Chiquita paid $1.7 million from 1997 through 2004 to fund the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a group that our country says is a terrorist organization. And Chiquita also bribed other groups inside of Colombia.
The company has now admitted to this wrongdoing and agreed to pay $25 million in fines. They said that the money was paid to protect employees from violent paramilitaries who fight over the banana plantations. I wouldn't wish working on a Colombian banana plantation to any living human being.
And yet we are about to sign a free trade agreement under fast track that we can't amend and stand up for the dignity of people in Colombia.
We know that the Colombian worker isn't safe; yet the President evidently thinks it is okay to sign an agreement where there is no transparent justice system, where bribes and protections and murders are every-day occurrences. Where are our values as a country? Why has it taken us almost 20 years from 1985 to 1995 to 2005, now it is 2007, to bring this issue up? We had to have so many casualties in this country. We tried 23 years ago so the hurt would not be so bad. And the gentlemen that are here this evening, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Michaud, Mr. Hare, Mr. Ellison, they represent those who are suffering in our country. There are people suffering in other countries, too.
I want to say I associate myself with the gentleman's remarks this evening. And what you said about those who have been murdered in Colombia, we know 72 were murdered in 2006, and the gentleman talked about prior assassinations of those who were trying to form groups there so they could earn a decent wage. Almost none have been prosecuted. It is like their lives have no meaning. So we need to set a higher standard. Maybe our Constitution really should stand for something and we should look for an agreement among the peoples of the Americas that uses democracy and liberty as its fundamental principles, not the diminishing of workers, be they farmers or industrial workers.
I oppose the Colombian free trade agreement and stand up for human rights, the middle class, the rule of law, and everything that this Nation should be committed to.
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