United State-Morocco Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act
UNITED STATES-MOROCCO FREE TRADE AGREEMENT IMPLEMENTATION ACT -- (House of Representatives - July 22, 2004)
Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 738, I call up the bill (H.R. 4842) to implement the United States-Morocco Free Trade Agreement, and ask for its immediate consideration.
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Ohio for yielding me this time.
Let me begin by saying I am prepared to yield time to any proponent of this bill who can tell me what the minimum wage is in Morocco. I heard that it has gone up. What is it, 20 cents an hour, 30 cents an hour? What is the minimum wage in Morocco?
I am prepared to yield time if anyone who is supporting this bill will tell me if Morocco is a democratic society. We heard about workers' rights. My understanding is that it is an hereditary monarchy where the legislature there could be abolished at any time by the King. Does anybody want to respond to that? I am waiting. I hear no response.
A few minutes ago, Mr. Speaker, we were told that gay marriage was going to destroy the fabric of American society. Well, I will tell my colleagues what is going to destroy the fabric of American society: pieces of legislation like this that are wiping out the middle class of this country, are lowering our standard of living, are making the gap between the rich and the poor grow wider.
I would yield again to my friends who are pushing this bill if they will tell me whether they agree with Thomas Donohue, the President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who several weeks ago urged, urged American companies to outsource, urged American companies to throw our workers out on the street and go to China or Morocco.
Will any proponents of this legislation tell me that they disagree with Mr. Donohue? I yield time to anybody who says they disagree with Mr. Donohue, the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce. I do not hear it.
In other words, the proponents of this bill are telling us that they think it is a good idea that Americans workers are thrown out on the street, lose decent paying jobs, and are forced to compete in a race to the bottom against desperate people all over the world who are working for pennies an hour.
Mr. Speaker, what is happening in our society today is that while productivity increases, while technology expands, the reality is that the middle class is shrinking and the average American worker is working longer hours for lower wages. There are a lot of reasons for that, but certainly one of the reasons is that our working class, our middle class is being asked to compete against desperate people in Morocco, in China, all over this world. And American corporations are saying, why should I pay an American worker $10, $15 an hour, have unions, protect the environment, when I can go to Morocco, I can go to China, and big money interests in this country, with the help of the Republican leadership, is going to make it easier for me to go abroad.
What is happening to this economy is an outrage in terms of the needs of our kids. The U.S. Department of Labor has projected that 7 out of the 10 fastest-growing jobs in the next 10 years are going to pay low wages, require a high school degree, with minimal benefits. We are losing our manufacturing base. In the last 3 years, 2.7 million good-paying manufacturing jobs gone. Now they are taking our information technology jobs to India. Gone. And what is going to be left for our kids? Well, Wal-Mart is doing very well; Burger King is doing very well. Is that what we want for our kids? Why are we selling out the middle class of this country? Why are we allowing corporate America to go abroad?
Well, I would suggest that we should look at the campaign contributions that come in to this institution from corporate America. No, let us have trade that is fair, not this trade agreement.