Jun 8, 2006- Long-Term Consequences of NAFTA

HON. MARCY KAPTUR
 OF OHIO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 2006

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I wish to especially thankCongressman Carter for allowing me this special privilege of appearingbefore he does this evening.

Mr. Speaker, the wonderful time about speaking at this time of day is we getto cover subjects that may not be on the agendas of any committee but are ofimportance to the American people. Tonight, I want to talk about the long-termconsequences of a trade agreement called NAFTA that passed over a decade ago.

We were promised, as the American people, that NAFTA would result in morejobs, trade balances with Mexicoand with Canada,and a higher standard of living in all of our countries. Indeed, exactly theopposite has happened. This country has now shipped out over 880,000 jobs, nearlya million jobs and still counting, to Mexicoand to Canada,and we have not amassed any trade surpluses but, indeed, have fallen into deepdeficit with both countries.

I have a couple of charts here that talk about this. Trade accounts with Mexico prior toNAFTA signing were positive. Every single year since NAFTA's signing, we havegone into deeper and deeper and deeper deficit, now over $50 billion a year,the largest ever, with each billion dollars representing a loss of 20,000 morejobs in this country.

With Canada,the other country with which we were supposed to experience a trade surplus, wehave also fallen into deficit. In fact, we have doubled the deficit that we hadwith Canada.And what is amazing about this is that every year it gets worse. The Americanpeople inherently know this because it is happening to them directly.

At the same time in this country we have increasing illegalimmigration, much of it from south of our border. What is interesting,most of the debate about immigration doesn't even touch on NAFTA. Yet if youlook at what NAFTA has caused inside of Mexico, over 2 million peasantfarmers have been displaced and another 500,000 more are coming each year. Andwhy is that? Because the very small farmsteads of Mexico,in the Sinaloa Valleyall the way down to Xcalas and Oaxacaare being destroyed.

The agricultural provisions I tried to get into NAFTA back in 1993 werenever allowed to be considered on this floor. If we had done that, we wouldhave been able to address the tragedy that is occurring in Mexico, whichis the complete elimination of their small holders and their farmers. I call ita continental sacrilege, the heartlessness that is embedded in NAFTA that iscosting jobs in our country, costing jobs in Canada, costing the loss of lifeas people flee to try to feed themselves, as their whole way of life is beingtotally destroyed in Mexico.

This week something very important happened. In the city of Ottawa,Canada, the capital city ofour sister state up north, a major meeting was held between parliamentarians ofthe United States, Canada, and Mexico to begin to push back acontinental effort to reform NAFTA. Both legislators, like myself, andrepresentatives of those two governments, along with civil society groups metin Ottawa tohalt NAFTA-plus, the expansion of NAFTA, something being called the Securityand Prosperity Partnership.

Instead, at a press conference in Ottawa on Monday, we announced thatnetworks from across Canada, the United States, and Mexico are going to unveila plan to bring an end to the kind of deep damage that NAFTA is causing in allthree countries and replace it with a people-centered trade model. As I said inmy remarks in Canada, tradeagreements in North America must ensure risingstandards of living and increase jobs in all of our countries.

We met this week in Ottawa, and that meetingfollowed one we held last year in this city of Washington, D.C. This was our second forum.We will have a third in Ottawa a year from now,and likely a meeting in Mexico Cityin August.

As one of our parliamentarians said, NAFTA has aggravated poverty across ourcontinent. And the new Democratic Party Parliamentarian, Peter Julian of Canada said,``There is no doubt that under NAFTA, most Canadians are poorer. We have beenfighting to make adjustments,'' he said, ``and now it is clear that NAFTA hasto be replaced.'' It is not working for the vast majority of the inhabitants ofNorth America. It has failed on the bottomline.

In anticipation of a summit that will be held in Ottawa in March 2007,called the ``Three Amigos Summit,'' our group will create a North Americansecretariat to prepare for counter information and counterproposals andintroduce simultaneous legislation in this chamber in Ottawa and in Mexico Cityto replace NAFTA. We will build opportunities for public engagement in civilsociety across this continent on the issue of proper continental integration.

Mr. Speaker, a new charter for the people of the Americas is being drafted,one that will result in more democracy, more cooperation, more development forrising standards of living, not more loss of jobs and greater trade deficits.