Providing for Consideration of H.R. 3045, Dominican Republic-Central America-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. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, let me thank my friend for yielding me time.
Mr. Speaker, I, along with many Democrats, have supported every trade agreement that has been presented. We do that because we believe trade has the potential to generate economic growth and raise the standard of living. The trick though is to make sure that we realize that potential.
During the last several decades we have really changed our focus in opening up markets for American manufacturers and producers. We have initially worked on removing tariff barriers. Now we are concerned about nontariff barriers. It does not mean we have done all we need to on tariff barriers, but the priority in our country has been to open up markets by removing nontariff barriers. That is why we spend a lot of time on intellectual property protection, on opening up opportunity for services, and, yes, Mr. Speaker, working on basic international labor standards.
I believe everybody in this body would agree with me that we do not
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want products coming into this country that violate child labor standards. Well, the same is true with other basic internationally recognized labor rights. We have made progress. The Caribbean Basin Initiative, the CBTPA, AGOA and GSP all have improved labor standards around the globe because we have raised the issue and raised the bar.
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In the Central American countries today, we have the Caribbean Basin Initiative. It has worked. It gives trade preferences to the Central American countries provided that they recognize international labor standards. The failure to do so allows us to impose trade sanctions. The threat has made progress in raising international labor standards and workers' rights in the Central American countries.
Mr. Speaker, I do not expect the administration to perform miracles when they negotiate free trade agreements, but I do expect them to represent the priorities of our Nation. In the CAFTA agreement, they repeal the rights we currently have under CBI, under the Caribbean Basin Initiative. Therefore, CAFTA is left with a weaker standard than current law in regards to workers' rights.
All CAFTA provides is for a country to enforce their own laws, regardless of how they may be; and then the sanction for failure to enforce their own laws that we have under the dispute settlement resolution are weaker standards. We cannot impose trade sanctions. All we can do is impose a fine, and that fine goes back to their own country. We cannot even enforce these weak standards.
You have to draw a line somewhere, Mr. Speaker. We have the constitutional responsibility on trade. We have to make that judgment. This agreement fails in that regard.
I had hoped that we would be able to renegotiate so that we could have a strong bipartisan vote on CAFTA. After all, we did that with textiles, and we could have done that with workers' rights. But this administration chose not to do it. In a way, Mr. Speaker, it is more important for a CAFTA agreement than some of the other agreements that have passed, for Chile and Singapore, Morocco and Australia, because of the standard of living in the Central American countries. For people living in poverty, trade, if properly structured, holds out the promise of more meaningful economic opportunities and a better way of life. But trade without basic labor standards will not do that.
I think this agreement is not a good agreement for the Central American countries, and it is not a good agreement for the United States.
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