Home > By Kathy Hoyt DR-CAFTA Approved in US: How could it happen? [8/29/05]
National Co-Coordinator
Nicaragua Network
Maybe I should stop waking up to the clock radio news and try music instead.
The blow at 6:00am on Thursday July 28, 2005, could only be compared to
that morning in February 1990 when I was awakened by news of the Sandinista
electoral loss. The House of Representatives had passed CAFTA in the middle
of the night! I screamed, "That's impossible! The President didn't
have the votes!" What can we tell our friends in Central America now?
We worked hard; we did all we could, but we lost. Now the subsidized agribusiness
corn and rice will come flowing in and price Central American farmers out
of the market and off of their land! It was too much to bear.
The radio said the vote count was 217 to 215. The Washington Post at our
door said that after the normal 15 minute voting period, the vote was 180
against with 175 in favor of the legislation. We would have won! But, over
the protests of the Democrats that they were violating the rules, the Republican
leadership extended the voting period until 12:03am and rounded up legislators
and twisted arms to emerge with the victory. It turns out that, in reality,
the vote was even closer. Representative Charles Taylor (R-NC) was recorded
as "not voting." But he said on Thursday that a voting machine
malfunction prevented him from casting his vote against CAFTA. He has asked
the Clerk of the House to correct the record to reflect his "no"
vote. This would make the final tally 217-216. The Bush administration brought
out all its big guns before the vote. The President and Vice-President visited
the House on Wednesday afternoon. The Vice-President returned in the evening,
staying until 10:00pm . Lawmakers told the Washington Post that GOP leaders
told their rank and file that, if they wanted anything, now was the time
to ask. Evidently, according to the Post, many of the favors handed out
in exchange for votes will be included in the energy and highway bills that
Congress is passing this week. Some votes were swayed by the passage on
Wednesday of a bill that would give U.S. firms expanded means to seek duties
on imports from China . The bill was promised to several representatives
from industrial states in exchange for their "yes" votes on CAFTA.
Other representatives were promised restoration of money that the White
House has tried to cut from agriculture programs.
Not all representatives succumbed to pressure and promises. Rep. Sanford
Bishop ( D- GA ) received offers of assistance to peanut growers in his
state but voted against the agreement. Bob Ney (R-OH) said that he was courted
by everybody "from the President's dog on up to the President himself."
But he said that he couldn't justify voting "yes" on CAFTA based
only on the promise of passage of the China trade bill which, he noted,
has not passed the Senate yet and was far from a sure thing. Rep. Howard
Coble (R-NC), whose mother worked in the mills, said, "When female
textile workers plead with me to vote against CAFTA, I said to the president,
that's my mama talking to me, and I can't turn a deaf ear to their pleas."
He was one of 28 Republicans who voted against the bill.
The Democratic leadership did not choose to formally "whip" the
CAFTA legislation; that is, they did not require Democrats to vote against
the bill. They argued that to "whip" the bill would have been
counterproductive because it would have made it harder for Republicans to
oppose CAFTA. In the end, however, Republican leaders won the support of
about half of the Republican representatives from textile-producing states
like Alabama, Georgia, and North and South Carolina with claims that the
Central American countries had agreed to certain concessions apart from
CAFTA such as the promise to use American-made pockets and linings in pants
exported to the U.S. But at the same time, a recent report by Public Citizen
has shown that 89% of the deals negotiated to gain passage of previous trade
agreements have been broken.
After the House passed the DR-CAFTA legislation just after midnight on Thursday
morning, the Senate voted later in the day to pass the bill AGAIN. It turns
out that the vote last month was only a tactic to help pave the road for
House passage. The Constitution mandates that all legislation with revenue
provisions must originate in the House and be passed by the Senate after
passage by the House.
When the impact of DR-CAFTA on Central America and the Dominican Republic
was infrequently mentioned, it was to refer to the need for U.S. trade to
support "fledgling democracies" to keep them from falling into
the clutches of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Fidel Castro of Cuba . President
Bush noted that four ( Nicaragua , El Salvador , Honduras and the Dominican
Republic ) of the six countries who signed the DR-CAFTA had assisted the
U.S. military effort in Iraq and that this assistance should be recognized
by passage of the agreement.
Daniel Ortega's name also appeared in the Congressional debate as noted
by Sarah Anderson in a piece she wrote for Common Dreams. On the Senate
side, James Inhofe (R-OK) said, "These Communists, these enemies of
the United States , Chavez, Ortega, and Castro, are all in opposition to
CAFTA. If you want to be on their side, you would vote against CAFTA."
Even before House debate began, Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) wrote the Washington
Post, "Those of us who well remember Nicaragua 's Daniel Ortega do
not take lightly his fierce campaign to defeat this agreement. We can abandon
our friends to poverty, dictatorship and the Ortega vision for the future.
Or we can help them to grow, prosper and improve their standard of living."
In even more outrageous hyperbole, Rep. Mike Kirk (R-IL) said on the House
floor that, "We can either send exports to Central America or troops."
However, Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ) had a superb retort: "I have
never heard anything more absurd or simplistic in my nine years here in
the House of Representatives. The people of these six countries oppose CAFTA.
They say it is unfair. And it really is a corporate-inspired trade deal
that hurts working people both in the United States and Central America
."
In the immediate aftermath of the vote, the Institute for Agriculture and
Trade Policy released a statement saying that the passage of CAFTA "signals
a major setback for U.S. sugar farmers and a damaging blow to Central American
farmers," adding that the deal "would lead to the destruction
of the U.S. sugar program and increase dumping of agricultural commodities
below their cost of production into Central American countries." The
National Family Farm Coalition noted that champagne corks were popped in
the executive suites of ADM, Cargill and Con Agra, the big winners with
the passage of CAFTA, adding that "the vast majority of citizens in
the U.S. , the Dominican Republic , and Central American countries are the
losers."
Others lamented the 275,000 HIV positive Central Americans who will be cut
off from life-saving generic medicines because of the extended patent monopolies
included in the treaty and factory workers who will suffer with fewer protections
than they enjoyed under the Caribbean Basin Initiative which will now be
replaced by CAFTA.
At the same time, we must evaluate the work that the various coalitions
carried out in opposition to CAFTA and take into account the fact that we
came closer to defeating a trade agreement than has ever been done before.
We were able to get the word out that the majority of Central Americans
opposed the agreement just as the majority of people in the United States
have now turned against so-called "free trade." While the sugar
and textile industry representatives received the most press here in the
U.S. for their opposition to the agreement, the Stop CAFTA Coalition, composed
of many solidarity groups, was a leader in the struggle against CAFTA. Some
organizations in the coalition sponsored visitors from Central America ,
including farmers, factory union organizers, and even bishops, to tell the
story of the real impact CAFTA would have on their economies and lives.
Some put out news bulletins for members of Congress. The coalition helped
organize demonstrations at every single city in the U.S. where negotiating
sessions were held. We supported the activities of our partners in Central
America with the placing of supportive paid ads in their local newspapers
and other activities at the times when negotiating sessions were held in
their countries. We stayed in touch with our Central American partners and
publicized the demonstrations carried out by popular movements there. The
Nicaragua Network , an active member of the coalition, sent to every member
of the House of Representatives a petition to the U.S. Congress signed by
over 800 representatives of Central American organizations meeting at the
Meso-American Forum in El Salvador explaining why they opposed CAFTA. Representative
Hilda Solis (D-CA), the only member of Congress of Nicaraguan parentage,
then sent it again with a letter from her reminding her colleagues that
they had received the petition from the Nicaragua Network and explaining
why she would vote against CAFTA.
But, we still lost. What can we do now? We can keep close watch on the implementation
of CAFTA and report on abuses. In fact, the Stop CAFTA Coalition has resolved
to stay in existence to do just that. Visit www.stopcafta.org.
We can continue to oppose the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and
make sure that it remains, as it is today, "dead in the water."
We can work to oppose the FTAA's baby sister the AFTA, or Andean Free Trade
Agreement, which is encountering numerous problems. Labor unions are vowing
to punish the 15 Democrats who voted for CAFTA by making sure that they
are challenged by strong candidates in their next primary elections. Below
is a list of the Democrats who voted in favor of DR-CAFTA. Is your representative
on the list? Be sure to let him or her know how disappointed you are. On
the other hand, if your representative voted against CAFTA, don't fail to
call or write and thank him or her.
Democrats who voted for DR-CAFTA:
Bean (IL), Cooper (TN), Cuellar (TX), Dicks (WA), Hinojosa (TX), Jefferson
(LA), Matheson (UT), Meeks (NY), Moore (KS), Moran (VA), Ortiz, (TX), Skelton
(MO), Snyder (AK), Tanner (TN), Towns (NY).
So let's wipe our tears and prepare for the next battle.
