Max Baucus: “this has been a long debate, and generally, in most respects, the statements have been a little bit one- sided: CAFTA is…”

“this has been a long debate, and generally, in most respects, the statements have been a little bit one- sided: CAFTA is great, it is going to help; or CAFTA is a terrible idea; it will send us down the drain. I am hopeful because I sensed that in the last 2 to 3 hours, the statements have been a little more toward the center, trying to figure out realistically what is happening, what is going on here. I think it is true, we all know in this competitive world that trade is important, it is essential. Companies have to trade, people have to trade both ways. If we do not, we are going to lose out big time. That is clear. There is not much doubt about that. But it is also true--and this has not been sufficiently addressed, certainly not in this debate and certainly not in the country, is how we address the dislocations that happen on account of trade because so many people lose jobs through no fault of their own. They work at a company, they work at a plant, say a manufacturing job at a plant, and the company seeking lower wages or lower health care costs goes overseas, maybe seeking software development, R&D investment, and an American loses his job. This might be a 20-year-old, it might be a 50-year-old, who loses his or her job. It is not the fault of the employee. It is because of the system. It is because the world is changing so dramatically. We have not begun at all to address what we should do about that. We do have trade adjustment assistance.…”