Congressman Cummings Votes Against CAFTA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 28, 2005
Congressman Cummings Votes Against CAFTA
Washington, DC -- Today, U.S. Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Maryland) joined 214 of his colleagues in voting against the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), a harmful trade pact between the United States and six Central American and Caribbean nations: Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The measure narrowly passed the House by two votes.
Congressman Cummings released the following statement on his decision to oppose CAFTA:
"I voted against CAFTA primarily because it will harm working people - both in the United States and in the Central American nations that signed the treaty - who continue to struggle in an uncertain economy.
"The benefit of CAFTA to workers in the United States has not been proven - and certain risks to workers in already hard-hit industries are simply unacceptable. CAFTA could cause annual losses of more than $1 billion to the U.S. textile industry, which, according to the Congressional Research Service, suffered a 60 percent loss in employment between 1980 and 2003.
"This industry is already reeling from the blows inflicted by competition in countries where wages and working standards are significantly lower than in the United States. It is simply unacceptable that the Republican-led Congress allowed the consideration of legislation that would cause the textile industry to be hit again.
"CAFTA will not benefit workers in the other six countries that are signatories of the trade agreement. The legislation does not require foreign countries to adopt any new labor protections; it only requires countries to enforce the labor standards currently in place.
"Reports from the U.S. Department of Labor detail multiple instances in which labor standards in these countries do not conform to the standards of the International Labor Organization by guaranteeing basic rights, such as the right to organize or to bargain collectively.
"U.S. farmers will also be hard-hit. The National Farmers Union has stated that it believes CAFTA could hurt important domestic farm industries, including the growers of fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and sugar, by exposing them to increased competition from cheaper producers in Central America.
"The Bush Administration launched an unprecedented lobbying effort to pass this bill. The President himself came to Capitol Hill yesterday to twist the arms of Republicans who were rightly reluctant to support this treaty. President Bush should invest that same kind of effort into developing initiatives that would truly create job opportunities for America's workers, and that would ensure that wages in this nation begin to rise after years of stagnation."
http://www.house.gov/cummings/press/05jul28a.htm