United States-Australia 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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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown), for yielding me time.
I rise in strong opposition to this agreement. It seems to me that before we rush into yet another free trade agreement we should spend a little bit of time assessing the horrendous impact that past free trade agreements have had on the middle class and working families of this country. If you have a policy which is failing, failing and failing, why do you want to continue going along that path?

Mr. Speaker, for many years now, corporate America and the big money interests have told us how good unfettered free trade would be if they spent a fortune getting these agreements passed. What they forgot to tell us is that while these free trade agreements are in fact good for the big corporations and their well-paid CEOs, they have been a disaster for the middle class and working families of our country.

The reality is, despite tremendous increases in technology and productivity, the average American today is working longer hours for lower wages. The gap between the rich and the poor is getting wider, and poverty is increasing. The middle class in America is collapsing, and unfettered free trade is one of the reasons.

In the last 3 years alone, we have lost 2.7 million good manufacturing jobs, over 16 percent of the total, and now after the collapse of manufacturing we are beginning to see the hemorrhaging of good-paying information technology jobs. While large corporations throw American workers out on the streets and move to China, India, Mexico and other low-wage countries, the new jobs being created here for our people are mostly low wage with minimal benefits. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 7 out of 10 of the fastest-growing professions in the next 10 years are going to be with high school degrees, minimal benefits, lower wages.

Is that the future that we want for our country?

To add insult to injury, Mr. Chairman, the President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donohue, the leader of our country's big business organization, has urged, has urged American companies to send our jobs overseas. Urged them. That is the kind of contempt that corporate America has for the working families of this country. By continuing to pass unfettered free trade agreements, we accommodate Mr. Donohue's goal; and we will see the loss of more and more good-paying jobs in this country.

I understand that Australia is not China, and I understand that workers there earn comparable wages, and I understand they do not go to jail when they stand up for their rights, and we could perhaps negotiate good agreements here and there with Australia, but an unfettered free trade agreement is not good.

Let me conclude by mentioning two specific objections I have.

Number one, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is right about reimportation and prescription drugs. I worry very much about the precedent, if we want to lower prescription drug costs in this country by this agreement.

Second of all, dairy farmers in Vermont, New England and America will be significantly and negatively impacted by the importation of a lot of dairy products over the years from Australia.