Keith Ellison: “Thank you. I thank you for your leadership on this issue of fair trade. I think that the time is right, the time is now…”

“Thank you. I thank you for your leadership on this issue of fair trade. I think that the time is right, the time is now to begin talking about fair trade. I want to commend all of the Members here tonight talking about this critical issue. This election sent a strong message: no staying the course on Bush's failed trade policy. So now what do we hear, that the Bush administration wants to send to Congress NAFTA expansion agreements with Peru and Colombia. Consider the problems that Democrats have endlessly raised in writing, in hearings, on the floor, think about these problems and the administration's trade agreement model, how we have continually demonstrated that the Bush trade model is killing American jobs and is an enemy of the middle class. Then consider what the administration chose to put in the deals anyway. Democrats are for consumers' right to affordable medicine. The 2002 trade negotiation authority instructed the Bush administration not to lard up and pack up these trade deals with new protections for big pharmaceuticals that could cut poor consumers off from access to medications and cause endless deaths in poor countries. But the administration inserted this poison pill into the FTAs. The TRIPS-plus requirement needs to come out. Democrats are against privatization of Social Security. We believe the elderly in whatever nation they are in should have safeguards for their security as they age.”