Mark Dayton: “I thank the Chair. The proponents want this agreement so much that they are going to use--one way or another, directly…”

“I thank the Chair. The proponents want this agreement so much that they are going to use--one way or another, directly or indirectly--U.S. taxpayer dollars to subsidize domestic sugar production or to buy off some of the otherwise imported sugar from these CAFTA countries at taxpayer expense in order to promote a free-trade agreement. It has the added irony, bitter irony of using tax dollars from working Americans in some cases to subsidize an agreement that is going to cost them their jobs. It underscores how the policy is bad economics, how it is bad trade policy. But the proponents of it want it so badly, because of its benefits for those companies that can outsource their jobs, based now in the United States, and that production to nearby countries, taking advantage of low wages there, costing American jobs, costing American communities their businesses and their employment and their social stability for the benefit of the wealthy few corporate interests who are bankrolling this effort, and now, in the ultimate bitter conclusion, taking taxpayer dollars to pay for the political grease to get this agreement through.…”