John Conyers: “today, I rise against H.R. 3688, the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act. Southeast Michigan…”

“today, I rise against H.R. 3688, the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act. Southeast Michigan has lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs due to unfair free trade agreements such as NAFTA and CAFTA. Unfortunately, H.R. 3688 follows in the steps of these lopsided trade deals. Advocates of today's legislation will insist that there are strong labor and environmental standards. However, members of the Peruvian Congress were working to pass a robust General Labor Law and now it will be tabled for a substantially weaker labor law issued by President Garcia. Furthermore, given President Bush's track record on lack of enforcement of current U.S. law, I cannot be persuaded that many of the labor provisions will be enforced. Unbalanced trade has led to a race to the bottom which has lowered job quality and wages for U.S. workers and H.R. 3688 will further encourage this push for cheap labor. This bill is also bad for Peruvians. More than three million Peruvians may lose their jobs from U.S. exports and may drive many rural farmers into the illegal cocoa trade. H.R. 3688 will limit Peruvian access to health care. Specifically, by approving this free trade agreement, drug companies will obtain five years of data exclusivity, or monopoly rights for pharmaceutical manufacturers in both countries, which will increase the price of medicine, delay the entry of new drugs, and restrict competition in this market.”