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CAFTA Showdown Looms in Congress
About 100 opponents of the Central American Free Trade Agreement, including CWA headquarters staff, rallied at the U.S. Capitol on June 15, as the House Ways and Means Committee approved the treaty in a "mock" mark-up.
Earlier in the week, IUE-CWA President Jim Clark wrote to all members of the Ways and Means Committee, and CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling wrote to all members of the Senate Finance Committee, urging them to reject or amend the agreement.
"It alarms me that it must be the sentiment of some of our legislators that the answer to trade is to remove the rights and protections of our workers in America rather than raise the standards in the countries that trade with the United States," Clark said.
Easterling said American workers "year after year have improved their productivity and rival the productivity of workers around the world. However, CAFTA undercuts these workers by making them compete with our less fortunate neighbors. On average, 50 percent of our neighbors in these countries live below the poverty line and over 30 percent of them are employed full time."
The Senate committee completed its mark-up on June 14, with Senator John Kerry introducing an amendment to ensure that all the CAFTA countries meet international core workers' rights standards, a change to the agreement that has been a key demand of workers in both the United States and Central America.
The agreement goes back to the Executive Branch to consider changes, then will be introduced in Congress with a bill to approve it. Under "fast-track" trade authority, there can be no amendments once the bill is introduced. Congress must vote it either up or down.
The Ways and Means Committee, with 24 Republicans and 17 Democrats, approved the agreement by a 25-16 margin, with Phil English (R-Pa.) voting against CAFTA, while Democrats John Tanner (Tenn.) and William Jefferson (La.) voted for the flawed trade agreement, but "opposition to CAFTA in the House continues to grow," said Representative Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who spoke out against the treaty along with fellow Democrats and Central American legislators.
The agreement is modeled after the North American Free Trade Agreement. Totally lacking in worker protections, NAFTA only benefited multinational corporations, which exported thousands of American jobs, undermining workers rights here and in Mexico and allowing challenges to laws that protect workers, consumers and the environment. It created a $41 billion trade deficit with that country. Prior to NAFTA, the U.S. had a small trade surplus. The United States lost about 1 million jobs as a result of NAFTA.
Earlier in the week, IUE-CWA President Jim Clark wrote to all members of the Ways and Means Committee, and CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling wrote to all members of the Senate Finance Committee, urging them to reject or amend the agreement.
"It alarms me that it must be the sentiment of some of our legislators that the answer to trade is to remove the rights and protections of our workers in America rather than raise the standards in the countries that trade with the United States," Clark said.
Easterling said American workers "year after year have improved their productivity and rival the productivity of workers around the world. However, CAFTA undercuts these workers by making them compete with our less fortunate neighbors. On average, 50 percent of our neighbors in these countries live below the poverty line and over 30 percent of them are employed full time."
The Senate committee completed its mark-up on June 14, with Senator John Kerry introducing an amendment to ensure that all the CAFTA countries meet international core workers' rights standards, a change to the agreement that has been a key demand of workers in both the United States and Central America.
The agreement goes back to the Executive Branch to consider changes, then will be introduced in Congress with a bill to approve it. Under "fast-track" trade authority, there can be no amendments once the bill is introduced. Congress must vote it either up or down.
The Ways and Means Committee, with 24 Republicans and 17 Democrats, approved the agreement by a 25-16 margin, with Phil English (R-Pa.) voting against CAFTA, while Democrats John Tanner (Tenn.) and William Jefferson (La.) voted for the flawed trade agreement, but "opposition to CAFTA in the House continues to grow," said Representative Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who spoke out against the treaty along with fellow Democrats and Central American legislators.
The agreement is modeled after the North American Free Trade Agreement. Totally lacking in worker protections, NAFTA only benefited multinational corporations, which exported thousands of American jobs, undermining workers rights here and in Mexico and allowing challenges to laws that protect workers, consumers and the environment. It created a $41 billion trade deficit with that country. Prior to NAFTA, the U.S. had a small trade surplus. The United States lost about 1 million jobs as a result of NAFTA.