John Conyers: “I am opposed to this bill to grant ``fast track'' negotiating authority to the president. The failed record of the North…”

“I am opposed to this bill to grant ``fast track'' negotiating authority to the president. The failed record of the North American Trade Agreement should have taught this body that it is time for us to remake our trade policy. NAFTA has hurt workers in America, increased poverty in Mexico and accelerated environmental destruction along the border. The NAFTA disaster demonstrates not that we shouldn't be making trade agreements, but that we need a fully participatory policy making process that protects the interests of consumers, workers and the environment. That process should put Congress, a body devoted to responsiveness to people back home, at the center of the trade debate. In my own state, NAFTA has been devastating to the auto industry. In 1997, the trade deficit with Mexico was $13.9 billion for autos and automobile parts alone! This figure is expected to go up a bit this year because from January through July of 1998, the trade deficit was $8.7 billion, compared to $8.3 billion for the same period last year. And keep in mind that before NAFTA, in 1993, the United States only had a $3.6 billion overall deficit with Mexico. I visited the low-wage maquiladora factories in Mexico in 1993. All the foreign-owned corporations told us that this business sector would shrink. Instead it has increased by half since NAFTA. This means that polluted corridor along the US border is growing uncontrollably and NAFTA's weak environmental protections give us almost no redress.”