Gary Hart: “I rise in support of the DR-CAFTA agreement. And I stand here supporting it from a district that has a pretty…”

“I rise in support of the DR-CAFTA agreement. And I stand here supporting it from a district that has a pretty significant portion of organized labor, and a district that has a pretty significant portion of manufacturing. Many of my colleagues who support this agreement are from very similar districts. One might wonder why, if one has been listening to the arguments from the other side of the aisle all night. But one does not wonder why if one made the phone calls into the district like we have been making over the last several months, talking to employers about this agreement. And what we have learned was that companies employing from 12 to 600 are excited about this. American companies with American employees, many of them organized labor, are excited about this agreement. And why? Because they have a very difficult time getting their products into Central America as it is today. That is because there are very high tariffs on our products going into Central America. Right now Central American countries have very little, if any, barrier getting their products into the United States. It has been that way for 20 years. But one of the best ways we can help move them forward is to get our products into Central America. Partially because a lot of their industrial development needs to be advanced, and we have the products to help them do that. How to raise their standard of living? Certainly raise their quality of manufacturing.…”