United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act

UNITED STATES-PERU TRADE PROMOTION AGREEMENT IMPLEMENTATION ACT -- (House of Representatives - November 07, 2007)

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I only wish we could have had these moments before the Ways and Means Committee itself, the respect Members should be afforded when their State's lost over 200,000 jobs and our Nation millions of jobs to these trade agreements. At least we have earned the respect. I am sorry that we only get 5 minutes on the floor. So many people are depending on us.

We know that every time this country signs a free trade agreement with a developing country we end up outsourcing more wealth and middle-class jobs. U.S. companies are shuttering faster than we can count. If these trade agreements were working, America's trade deficit would not be ringing in at over $800 billion this year, and for every billion, 20,000 more jobs lost in this country. What an unprecedented wipeout of productive wealth and of jobs and of lives. The sliding value of the dollar proves it, our staggering debt levels prove it, and the growing stock market instability proves it.

If we put it in perspective, we were told that when NAFTA passed, and I voted against that in 1993, our Speaker voted for it, our majority leader voted for it, I remember that vote very clearly, we were told that though we had a surplus with Mexico, it would grow. What happened? We have fallen into deeper and deeper deficit with Mexico every year. And over 2 million Mexican peasants were upended from their farmland, creating an endless flow of illegal immigration to this country, because we were not allowed to offer amendments to provide adjustment provisions in those agreements for the people of the Third World. Shame on us.

Then we were told, well, let's move to China. When the China PNTR was signed, we weren't in trade balance with China; we were actually in trade deficit. But after PNTR was signed, the deficit doubled and tripled. The Speaker talked about that tonight. It didn't get any better; it just got worse. And now we are getting all of the tainted food and the toys with lead and so forth.

The Jordan Free Trade Agreement had environmental and labor provisions. They said, that is the dawn of a new decade. Just what they are saying tonight. Guess what? No enforcement. We know that. They don't intend to do that. They never did.

Now tonight we look at Peru. Now, with Peru we are already in deficit; in fact, over $3 billion in deficit with Peru. I hope the Ways and Means Committee staffer is adding this up, because, you see, the numbers are in the wrong direction. That is why the value of the dollar is terrible.

What is interesting about Peru, though, what is the largest export from Peru to the United States? Gold. Gold. How convenient. And Peru is the largest silver producing country in the world.

Look at the commodities markets. In whose interest would it be to bring in more of that here? And we have heard that Caterpillar now wants to move its production to serve those mines down in Peru. They are not going to send tractors from Illinois to Peru. They are going to move the production to Peru and pay those workers nothing. We have seen the pattern before. Now, please, don't take us to be idiots.

We think about Del Monte and Green Giant. They used to manufacture. They had all of their product processed in Watsonville, California. I have been there. My uncles used to work there. Guess what? It is gone down there.

Do you think they pay these farmers anything? No. We are going to lose 3 million Peruvian farmers. They are going to be upended just like the Mexican campesinos were. Have we no heart? Some people have no heart. We have heart. We are down here tonight. We can't forget them.

I remember Congressman Kucinich was talking about Citigroup. Citigroup. They just wrote off $11 billion Sunday night, in the wee hours of the night so maybe nobody would notice. Citigroup has got a little problem with subprime mortgages, so they want to manage now the pensions of the world.

They can't manage Social Security yet, so guess where they are going? They are going to Peru. They want to manage those dollars, and lots of other pension funds in this country. They are in trouble. They made mistakes. They robbed the American people, and I sure hope they don't come to this Congress for help, because we shouldn't be paying to bail them out. They are going to go to Peru, and under this agreement, it makes it easier for them to do that.

Tonight I genuflect, not before the Ways and Means Committee, but before the mine workers of Peru who are on strike. They went on strike Monday because these gold exporting firms are making billions. They doubled their dividends in companies like Newmont, which just happens to be an American company that owns the biggest gold mine in Peru, in South America. Actually, it is the second largest gold mine in the world.

I genuflect before those mine workers because here is what they have been told. Though the company has doubled its dividends to its shareholders, they won't give the workers anything. That is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Do you think they care? They are cleaning up on Wall Street selling that gold. Go to New York. Watch how that happens. Will they help those workers? No. What the company has told them, what the government has told them, the government said, Go back to work or you lose your job in 3 days. You are fired.

That is who we are doing business with, my friends?

I am an old-line Democrat. I came here to represent the majority of people in this country who are being dispossessed by Wall Street, dispossessed by the global corporations that think they are worth nothing. And we had best have a majority of a majority here tomorrow stand for the workers of this continent who still believe that we are the beacon of freedom and that they matter.

God bless this country, and God bless our workers.

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