On the recordOctober 12, 2011
I rise to speak against this agreement. This, my friends, is the Panama trade agreement. There are 1,600 pages. If we want to get rid of tariffs and level the playing field, we would pass about three pages of tariff schedules and build in labor rights so that all of us would pass this by a voice vote. This is 1,600 pages of rules to help insurance companies, to help drug companies, to undercut America's sovereignty. It is based on the same NAFTA trade model that doesn't work with investor-state relations. The same promises we hear in every trade agreement--the Clinton administration and the first Bush administration promised 200,000-plus jobs for NAFTA. We lost 600,000 jobs. Vote no on Panama. It is more of the same. It doesn't work for America and small businesses, and it doesn't work for our workers. I ask for a ``no'' vote. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time? The Senator from Montana.
