Janice Schakowsky: “As the gentleman remembers, that woman had children who she could not afford to send to school. It costs money to send…”

“As the gentleman remembers, that woman had children who she could not afford to send to school. It costs money to send them to school, a modest amount of money by our standards but out of reach for her because she does not make the kind of income that even would allow her children to go to school or have adequate health care. Is that the point of a free trade agreement? The United States should and could lead the world by example through a trade policy that improves the lives of individuals and not just adds to the profits of the major corporations. We could and should benefit workers here in the United States and create and sustain jobs that help small- and middle-sized and family-owned businesses grow. And D.R. CAFTA, Dominican Republic CAFTA, is not going to accomplish those goals for us here, for our small companies, for our workers and is simply going to increase this race to the bottom so that, how cheap can we get labor? I wanted to make a point about, are we really looking for markets in these Central American countries? Do we really believe that we are going to find people who are going to be buying our products? The combined purchasing power of the Central American nations in CAFTA is the same as Columbus, Ohio, or New Haven, Connecticut. The average salary of a Nicaraguan worker is $2,300 a year, $191 a month. Are they going to buy that car that is made in Ohio or in Michigan?”