United States - Austrailia Free Trade Implementation Act

UNITED STATES-AUSTRALIA FREE TRADE IMPLEMENTATION ACT -- (House of Representatives - July 14, 2004)

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 712, I call up the bill (H.R. 4759) to implement the United States-Australia Free Trade Agreement, and ask for its immediate consideration.

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio, and I doubt anyone can hold a candle to him relative to
trade.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this trade proposal, in a way reluctantly. I had held such hope that this particular proposal could be the template for trade agreements that could be negotiated between the developed democracies of the world, and that following on the Jordan Free Trade Agreement, we could actually produce the first trade agreement between developed democracies that would provide the gold standard for the world, that we could really use proactively. This one falls far short of doing that.

You might ask the question, Would we have this agreement before us if Australia did not have troops in Iraq? It is kind of interesting that this is coming up at this particular moment.

One of my concerns about this agreement is that Australia may become another back door trade route to the U.S., sort of the new Hong Kong, because of all the current difficulties in Hong Kong NOW. This agreement is imperfect. It does not really provide a comprehensive set of provisions to really deal with trade between nations that want higher standards of living, but that in fact you will get more Chinese goods and Chinese investment going into Australia and then coming here under this so-called "free trade" agreement because of all the economic and commerical difficulties that Hong Kong is having since the handover to the Chinese.

We know that this particular agreement would allow drug companies to challenge decisions on coverage and payment, so we further weaken the abilities of developed democracies to try to provide affordable health care for all their people.

The agreement is absolutely inadequate in terms of comprehensive labor and environmental standards. We should accept no less. In fact, my dream would be that we would learn how to strike trade agreements between developed countries, and then ask third world nations to join that consortium in order to raise standards of living around the world, rather than force all nations in this race to the bottom, including our own, where wages among the majority have fallen.

Mr. Speaker, I include for the RECORD an article from the Wall Street Journal, "Trade Agreement May Undercut Importing of Inexpensive Drugs," and also a set of standards we should use in any trade agreement based on a review of some of our other trade agreements. There standards should be expected from any trade agreement this Nation negotiates.

I ask my colleagues to vote "no." This agreement is too incomplete and imperfect.