Walter B. Jones: “Absolutely I am opposed to it. I have been here for 14 years and for 14 years I have seen the American worker become…”

“Absolutely I am opposed to it. I have been here for 14 years and for 14 years I have seen the American worker become less than a middle-class person and just trying to pay the bills. I don't know how with this Peru Free Trade Agreement that we can believe we are going to do a whole lot to help with the trade deficit of this nation, with the lost jobs of so many Americans. The United States has lost more than 3.1 million jobs since 2001. The United States is projected to run a trade deficit of over $200 billion with China. We even have a trade deficit with Mexico. Where in the world is this country going? I said yesterday to a friend of mine, ``I'm afraid we are in the last days of a great nation. When the basic Judeo-Christian values begin to crumble, the economy begins to fall apart, where is America going?'' This is not the right trade bill. We could have the right trade bill, just like we should have had with CAFTA. Peru has less than one-tenth of the U.S. population, and more than 50 percent of all Peruvians live in poverty. Mr. Speaker, it is absurd to expect Peru to become a major consumer of U.S. finished products.”