Sherrod Brown: “I rise to speak in this Chamber about a story unfolding right now in Costa Rica. This country of 4 million people is…”

“I rise to speak in this Chamber about a story unfolding right now in Costa Rica. This country of 4 million people is having a national referendum on October 7--next week--on the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the trade deal this Congress passed by a narrow margin a couple of years ago. CAFTA stipulates that the last signatory country must approve the deal no later than 2 years after the first signatory country implements the agreement. So over the past 2 years, the United States, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic enacted the NAFTA expansion. The Costa Rican people have resisted it. My colleagues have seen news reports this weekend about a massive rally of fair traders--people who want trade but under different rules--against CAFTA in Costa Rica. Some 150,000 citizens in a country of 4 million people spoke out expressing their opposition to the agreement--150,000 people--and most thought that a conservative estimate. The pro-CAFTA government gave up efforts to pass CAFTA in the legislature after continued protest against it, including a 2-day general strike last October. Their is strong opposition to a NAFTA-style agreement. In fact, the issue of whether to approve CAFTA has stirred up such political upheaval that the Government chose to go to a public referendum instead of going to the legislature.”