Walter B. Jones: “I am on the floor again tonight. I have been speaking against CAFTA. I have joined my friends on both the Republican…”

“I am on the floor again tonight. I have been speaking against CAFTA. I have joined my friends on both the Republican side and the Democratic side who feel that CAFTA is not good for the American workers and not good for the American people and certainly does not help those in Central America. And tonight I want to take just a few minutes and insert for the Record the entirety of a letter from seven members of the general assemblies down in five of the countries that are opposed to CAFTA. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman that I met recently is from El Salvador, and this was at a conference last week that the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) and I attended, Interfaith Council of Protestants, Catholics, and also one rabbi to speak in opposition to CAFTA. Let me just give the first introductory statement. It says: ``Dear Members of the United States Congress, the CAFTA market has fewer than 9.2 million people who can buy U.S. goods.'' Now, this is a long letter. It is signed by seven members of the Central American assemblies, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras. Mr. Speaker, I want to go to the last paragraph of the letter from those members of the elected bodies of those countries. And this is what it says in the close of their letter, not mine, but their letter: ``CAFTA is a bad trade deal because it puts the interests of international corporations ahead of the welfare of the working poor and the poor in Central America.…”