Thread: Bush Faces Hostile Lawmakers on Cafta in Carolinas

Bloomberg News

Bush Faces Hostile Lawmakers on Cafta in Carolinas
2005-07-15 09:56 (New York)

By Mark Drajem and Roger Runningen

July 15 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush, seeking to
overcome opposition from textile makers to the U.S.-Central
American Free Trade Agreement, will take his campaign for the
accord out of Washington for the first time and onto the front
porch of one of its fiercest opponents.

Bush today will tour a yarn-spinning plant of R.L. Stowe
Mills in Belmont, North Carolina, and give a speech at Gaston
College outside of Charlotte. So far, Republican Sue Myrick,
whose district includes Charlotte, is the only lawmaker of the 11
Republican representatives of North Carolina and South Carolina
who has come out in support of Cafta.

``They need to round up more Republicans,'' said I.M.
Destler, a fellow at the Institute for International Economics in
Washington and author of the book ``American Trade Politics.''
The Carolina delegation ``is in a swing position, but the big
question is how many of them are still movable.''

Of the 10 other House Republicans in the Carolinas, six say
they oppose Cafta, two are undecided, and two -- including House
Textile Caucus Chairman Howard Coble -- are leaning against it.
The administration is negotiating with some of those undecided
lawmakers to provide new rules that will protect markets for the
U.S. textile industry in Central America.

``We've had some members express specific concerns that
we've been able to simply accommodate within the existing
agreement,'' U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in an
interview. ``In the end we are going to get this through because
the facts are so compelling.''

Presidential Involvement

Corralling each of those Republicans is crucial as only five
of the 202 Democrats in the House of Representatives have
announced support for Cafta. Opposition from the sugar industry
has already sapped Republican support in Florida and Louisiana,
as well as in beet-producing states such as Minnesota. The
Republicans hold the majority in the House with 231 members.

The administration is still at least 20-25 votes short of a
majority in the House for Cafta to pass, according to Mary Kay
Thatcher, director of public policy for the 5.8 million-member
American Farm Bureau Federation.

``It's going to require presidential involvement,'' she
said. ``We're not there yet.''

A Split Industry

Cafta would end tariffs on more than $33 billion in goods
traded between the U.S. and Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic,
El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The Senate
passed the agreement on June 30 by a vote of 54-45, the smallest
margin for a trade agreement since at least 1993. The House is
the final hurdle and is planning to vote this month.

The largest U.S. textile organization, the National
Coalition of Textile Organizations, endorses Cafta, while
competing groups such as the National Textile Association oppose
it. Some companies say a market for yarn and fabric in Central
America is the best hope U.S. companies have to survive increased
competition from China; others say Cafta is the continuation of a
failed strategy of trade agreements that have led to U.S. job
losses.

``The textile industry is split, and the legislative
delegation reflects that,'' D. Harding Stowe, chief executive of
R.L. Stowe, said in an interview.

Textile production mills have had the most severe losses of
any manufacturing sector in North Carolina, dropping 14 percent
in the past 12 months and by about half since 1995, according to
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. South Carolina hasn't fared
any better, losing 47 percent of its textile jobs since 1995.

Exporting

Bush's visit will focus how important Cafta is to the
textile industry, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said July
13. The goal, he said, is to support democracies in Central
America and create parity on U.S. exports, which face stiff
tariffs.

Stowe, 49, who gave the maximum allowable contribution of
$2,000 to Bush's campaign last year and sits on the president's
council that promotes manufacturing, said one-third of the yarn
spun at the factory Bush will tour goes to Central America.

The Cafta region is North Carolina's second-largest export
market after Canada, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been
promoting the idea that the trade accord will lead to a $3.9
billion increase in North Carolina's economy within nine years.

``Most members of Congress understand that we have to export
to be profitable,'' Thatcher said.

Compromises

Still, convincing lawmakers of the importance of the
agreement has proven a heavy lift for an administration and
Republican leadership in Congress that have been able to rely on
near unanimous support from Republicans on other measures.

The Bush administration late last month reached a deal with
lawmakers that placated some concerns about a potential surge in
sugar imports from Central America. And yesterday House Ways and
Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas threw his support behind a
measure that would widen the scope for companies to seek duties
on Chinese products -- a gesture Thomas said is intended to
address lopsided trade balances and round up support for Cafta.

Representative Bob Inglis, a South Carolina Republican, said
he is working with U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman to get
three specific changes on Cafta that would ensure that any duty-
free apparel exports from Central America are made with U.S.
fabric, according to a letter he sent to constituents.

``Hopefully, they will secure suitable assurances that Cafta
will not become an open door for duty-free Chinese imports,''
Inglis wrote. ``If they do, I'll vote for Cafta.''

A spokeswoman for Portman declined to comment.

End of an Industry

North Carolina Republican Robin Hayes, whose district abuts
Myrick's, opposes Cafta and won't be at the president's event
today because of a previous commitment. Hayes fears Cafta will
allow China to subvert import caps the U.S. imposed on its
clothing by using Central America as a backdoor to get Chinese
goods into the U.S., said Carolyn Hern, his spokeswoman.

Coble, whose district includes Greensboro, is leaning
against Cafta and told the White House not to bother having Bush
visit, according to Ed McDonald, Coble's spokesman.

``Cafta is being used by the largest corporations so that
they can outsource their operations to those Latin countries,''
said Nimrod Harris, president of Pickett Hosiery in Burlington,
North Carolina, which is in Coble's district. ``It may be the
very end of the textile industry in this country.''

--With reporting by Michael McKee in New York. Editors: Bostick,
Todd, Bostick

Cafta is being used by the largest corporations so that
they can outsource their operations to those Latin countries,''
said Nimrod Harris, president of Pickett Hosiery in Burlington,
North Carolina, which is in Coble's district. ``It may be the
very end of the textile industry in this country.''

It will be the end of a great number of industries in this country. What do you think....this whole CAFTA CON is about the price of "sugar"? No.

It's about the end of the United States.

President Bush in North Carolina Textile Mills




Christian Communication Network


Remarks by President Bush on CAFTA-DR, Jobs in North Carolina

To: National Desk

Contact: White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 202-456-2580

DALLAS, North Carolina, July 15 /Christian Wire Service/ -- The following text is of remarks by President Bush on CAFTA-DR made at
Gaston College, in Dallas, North Carolina:

1:01 P.M. EDT


http://www.earnedmedia.org/wh0715.htm




A White House Press Release.
A different text



The White House

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 15, 2005

CAFTA Will Create Jobs and Level the Playing Field for American Workers

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases ... 715-1.html






Dear Judy :

I don't want to contradict you and I can see the suffering of People in North Carolina that lost their Textile or Garment Industry jobs.

But please take into account that most Textile Apparel Jobs have been lost to China and not to Latin America.

There are not so many Textile - Apparel remaining jobs in America. But they can be saved by what America does best :

High Technology, Advanced Computers and Lasers, etc ... for Latin workers sewing clothes. Furnish the Machinery and Advanced Tech in Fibers, Fabrics, Yarns, etc ... Dyes, chemicals, etc ....

And furnish the Best Cotton for Central America.

With no CAFTA the Textile Apparel business in Central America will be slowly eroded by the Chinese.

Is it good to have no Textiles and Apparel in the Whole Western Hemisphere ???. And only a Chinese Apparel Super Power. ???

And lots of poverty in Central America ???

You might lose American jobs. OK !! OK !!! ..... But you gain more and better jobs in High Technology. It is a matter of retraining.

Am I naive ??? Or very pro Latin for being Hispanic ???

Please correct me !! .... I am buying Mr Bush North Carolina Speech and the White House Press Release.

Vicente Duque

You might lose American jobs. OK !! OK !!! ..... But you gain more and better jobs in High Technology. It is a matter of retraining.

No Vicente, our government allows our high tech jobs to be exported already. We have thousands in North Carolina who are in poverty because they lost their textile jobs and other manufacturing jobs due to exporting our jobs to China and Mexico as well as other 3rd world countries. These so called trade agreements have done nothing but cause lower wages, higher unemployment and less self dependency on what we can manufacture ourselves.

We have to take care of our poor Vicente, CAFTA will only create more poverty and open up our borders as well as the CODEX and so much more.

George Bush ought to be tried for treason for supporting CAFTA!

From Bush's Speech:

And so I'm calling on the Congress to pass CAFTA. It's a pro-jobs bill. It's a pro-growth bill. It's a pro-democracy bill. We cannot turn our backs on our friends. We cannot say to them, for pure political reasons, we're not going to support a treaty that will not only help our own businesses, but that will help stabilize young democracies.

doublespeak doublespeak

The WiscoTrader
Providing Fair Trade News and Views You Won’t Find In Mainstream Media
July 14th, 2005 ~ Issue 15 ~ Big Brother Would be Proud.

Doublespeak originated from George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, when pundits of the 1950’s combined the words doublethink with newspeak.

The propaganda of Doublespeak occurs when a Government says one thing and means just the opposite. Under this Rovian tactic, if a government lie is told often enough, with confidence, from authority, the masses will ultimately accept it as truth. For example, in “1984�, when Big Brother and the Administration says PEACE they mean WAR, when they say LOVE they mean HATE, and when they say FREEDOM they mean SLAVERY.

Today, when the Administration says trade is FREE, they mean at a COST.

The Administration’s trade propaganda would make Big Brother proud. The CAFTA debate abounds with deliberate reversals of fact. FREE TRADE will actually COST us millions of jobs, hurt our economy, pollute our environment, and take away local control.

To show this high cost of FREE TRADE, we’ve put together a Top Ten List you’ll never see on Dave Letterman: Trade Doublespeak.

#10 Doublespeak: Our Trade Deficit Actually Shows How Strong The Economy Is. Yes, some people actually say this. It’s a lot like arguing that the more you go into debt, the richer you really are. Warren Buffet notes the absurdity of this statement, adding "Americans end up owning a reduced portion of our country while non-Americans own a greater part. This force-feeding of American wealth to the rest of the world is now proceeding at the rate of $1.8 Billion daily.� It already happened with NAFTA. Our trade deficit with those countries is 12 times bigger than before NAFTA -- it shot up from $9 billion in 1993 to $111 billion last year. A high trade deficit weakens our economy.

#9 Doublespeak: CAFTA Slows Immigration. This same false promise was made under NAFTA, and we all witnessed the opposite result of increased immigration from Mexico. CAFTA has back-door provisions that dictate our U.S. immigration laws and visa requirements may be in violation of the agreement, and unenforceable. CAFTA also increases legal immigration, as any foreign company wishing to come into the United States can also bring in employees from the country of origin.

#8 Doublespeak: CAFTA Opens A Substantial Market for U.S. Goods. Central America has some of the poorest countries in the world, and the aggregate economy of the six CAFTA nations is minuscule. "Add up the six CAFTA economies and you get a market the size of New Haven, Connecticut," points out trade analyst Alan Tonelson of the U.S. Business and Industry Council. Tonelson concludes that CAFTA is a "classic outsourcing agreement" â€â€

Hi Vicente!! It is okay to be pro Latin America. It is okay to be pro-people all around the world. THAT is American. All Americans have always wanted all people around the world to do well and to succeed. Americans have NEVER wanted to hoard business or hoard our system that makes our country successful. We do not wish to now.

The problem with CAFTA is like NAFTA...it is a lie. Our companies will "reinvest" in Central America, something Central America, NOT THE US, prohibits. Central Americans do not want our companies invading their market. Central Americans do not want to lose their farms to GMO farming. Central Americans do not want to compete with our companies because our companies will put their companies out of business. That is why the people of Central America are opposed to CAFTA as well. When our companies go there, they will pay local prevailing wages, just like they did in Mexico under NAFTA. The well-being of the people will be only fractionally improved. THAT IS WHY Central American countries do not allow US investment.

CAFTA is not about increased sales to Central America. It is about relocating American investment to Central America. The trade agreement is clever in that respect. It purports to open free trade by allowing Central American nations to sell their products to US. Vice versa, it allows our country to sell our products to them. BUT here is the reality....they can already sell their products to US and we can already sell our products to them. Yes, yes....they pay a tariff to us and we pay a tariff to them. Big deal....it's like a sales tax. So what? It balances out.

THE BIG DEAL about CAFTA is our companies being allowed to invest in Central America and put the local companies out of business.

THE BIG DEAL about CAFTA is our companies that want to will now be able to close plants in the US and relocate them to Central America and sell those same products back to us from there instead of here. They will also sell these products in Central America competing with local Central American companies.

THE BIG DEAL about CAFTA is the "free flow of people, labor and goods" provisions which OPENS the United States to any Central American to wants to come here in the name of work, business or trade. We can not control our immigration or borders now. IMAGINE what this means to the American People? A FLOOD OF MILLIONS OF CENTRAL AMERICANS that we can not sustain.

CAFTA IS A CON GAME BY THIS PRESIDENT AND THIS US SENATE AND THIS ADMINISTRATION!!

Vicente, it is perfectly understandable to want to do something to help Latin American nations; and any South American nation who wants it. BUT, my dear Vicente, CAFTA and FTAA are not the way to do it. Neither these two agreements like NAFTA before them help either the US or the countries who are entering into them with the US.

THEY ONLY EXPAND GLOBALISM and benefit multi-national corporations.

Central America, like Mexico, Iraq and Afghanistan will not be allowed to save seeds. This means the US seed companies will take over the farming and food supply of any nation where they establish themselves.

THIS FACT is reaosn enough to defeat CAFTA. The GMO, genetically-engineered seeds are injected with a Bt Toxin. It kills honey bees, Monarch butterflies, birds, small animals, and goes on up the food chain. You can not grow natural food with GMO food. The pollen is sterile. There has been no human trials on this food and too little wildlife trials for these seeds to be blowing all across the planet. The Bt toxin allows for heavy pesticide sprays on the crops directly as they are growing.

Also, right now in the United States, there is trouble. Americans are very upset about immigration policy of this Administration that violates our laws. Americans are very upset about a Congress that will not stop increasing immigration numbers. Americans are very upset about a US Supreme Court that just ruled "government" can take one private property from one American and convey it to another broadening the powers of eminent domain to a King's Court and reducing property rights and to nothing. Americans are very upset about an Administration that talks about protecting the nation from terrorism but is leaving our borders wide open. Americans feel unprotected; unsafe; at risk; and rightly so.

Americans have lost control of their government, Vicente, and are just waking up to that horrible realization. Americans can not support CAFTA because it is not helpful to the people of the United States; it is not helpful to the people of Central America; it is only helpful to Globalist Multi-national Corporations who many of us believe are determined to dissolve the United States and create a new North American Nation and then a giant Hemispheric Nation.

None of these plans are in the best interest of any people anywhere. This is a path to global control of all of us.

CAFTA is part of that plan, disguised as a "free trade agreement". It is not a "free trade agreement". It is much more than that.

Also, Vicente, you must realize also that if this agreement is ratified, all of its provisions will now be interpreted and ruled by a WORLD COURT and not the nations...not the Central American Courts and not the US Courts...but the WORLD COURT and the WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION.

Every citizen of every country involved in these US led "free trade" agreements are giving up their rights, their independence, their sovereignty.....for NOTHING.

Just ask yourself...if CAFTA is a great deal for the non-US country, then why didn't NAFTA make a difference for Mexico? These are complex "contracts" designed to benefit international corporate interests and have no intent or purpose whatsoever relating to the people or citizens of any nation, ours or our trading friends.

OPPOSE CAFTA, Vicente. It is a trick. You will not like it.

AND FURTHERMORE, Vicente:

You can not believe this Administration or this President on any subject relating to China.

The textile industry left the United States almost 20 years ago when those holding the textile manufacturing technology sold it to China.

Thers is no new textile industry research, or develpment, or technology underway in the United States.

UNDER PRESENT CONDITIONS AND CAFTA--what little is left in the United States will be gone.

No one can compete with China in the textile industry because the United States gave it up two decades ago. Central America will not be able to compete with China in textiles, this is a farce. Chinese live on pennies a day. Central America can not compete with that. No one can.

The US will not be investing money in textile "research", why would it? It has no manufacturing to which to apply the research. You do not make your money from "research". You make your money by applying that "research" to your core manufacturing business. No one is going to pay American textile "researchers" anything for their "research". Why would they? There will be no "high tech jobs" created in the US from CAFTA. Many "high tech jobs" will be outsourced to Central America and the employees paid pennies.

NO ONE BENEFITS FROM THESE TRADE AGREEMENTS, because they are frauds, a farce, and the President did nothing but use taxpayer money to travel to North Carolina to tout a tale to this state and its Congressman that was nothing more than a "pack of lies" and pure "hocus pocus".

Grim. But true, Vicente.

Just ask yourself....if there is no "textile" industry in the United States, why would American Companies be creating "high tech jobs" doing research on an industry it no longer owns?

Just ask yourself...if relocating the "textile" industry to Central America is going to help Central American nations, how do they plan to compete with China while at the same time raising the standard of living for their citizens? They are counter-opposing. It is not possible. No one can compete with China because the vast majority of their people live in hovels and on one bowl of rice a day. Is that what you think Latin American countries want to compete with? To compete with China you have to charge less than they do? How can you raise your standard of living while competing with China? It is not possible. It is a farce. A fabricated story by this Administration to deceive ignorant Congressman into voting for CAFTA which will end our nation and every country that signs one of these US trade agreements.

It is a lie, Vicente, the CAFTA CON GAME.

I wish I could have attended Georgie Boy's speech in NC today, but unfortunately it was invitation only. I guess Georgie Boy can't bring himself to face a public forum where he may have to face legitimate questions that he hasn't "prepared for."

I did read an interesting article about CAFTA in the Washington Times and here is a small quote:

For example, CAFTA's champions contend it will create major new export markets for goods and services, and increase U.S. output, employment and wages. Supposedly, this is why the president made it the centerpiece of his trade policy this year.

But has the CAFTA lobby looked at the five Central American countries in question and the Dominican Republic lately? Their populations together total about 45 million â€â€

Good thing our current generations weren't around in 1776 or we would still be pledging our allegiance to England and not the United States of America.

Or FRANCE, eh?

Vive La France....the one country willing to stand up to Globalists and say, "Kiss my Derriere"!

CAFTA is a CON by this CON ARTIST, Bushey Boy...for Globalists intent upon ending our nation and dissolving everything 229 years of work, ingenuity, bravery, courage, suffering, self-sacrific, and death in the name of country took to build.

Defeat CAFTA!! Whatever It Takes!!

Dee, thanks for the outstanding post and every word is true.

Judy, JP and other Friends :

I read your posts. I acknowledge that there is a lot of true in what you say about the loss of jobs. Since my main interest is Textiles and Apparel then I found this note :

Bush made his CAFTA pitch in a region that had been unusually hard-hit by globalization. North Carolina has lost 235,600 factory jobs, many of them at textile, apparel and furniture plants, since 1994's North American Free Trade Agreement. More than 400 of its textile mills have shut down since NAFTA.


"We had a bad experience with NAFTA," Rep. G. K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) said. "North Carolinians remember that experience, and we're still suffering the effects of it. We believe CAFTA will be not much different from NAFTA."

This is here :

Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... nes-nation





I acknowledge the Jobs Loss and Suffering in North Carolina :



So I acknowledge that your concern is based on facts and sad events ( of job losses ), unemployment or losing benefits for people of Old Age.

But we have to find a way to interact in Trade. You Americans and we Latin Americans. We can not put on our Chastity Belts and not having trade because of these sad events.

Look American Agriculture is Superb, God gave the best to America in Soils, Fertitliy, Plains, Climate, Technology, Dedication of Farmers, Government Subsidies, Intelligence of Americans, etc ...

Big American Agriculture will always defeat us. We ( Colombians ) can only survive in small agricultural niches like coffee, flowers and exotic fruits. Some prophets say that there is a future for Colombia in tea and wines. But that is very speculative and may turn out to be wrong.



Risks have to be run :



But risks have to be run and we must sign Free Trade Agreements with America, or Europe or someone else ( if we are turned down by the United States ).

We run a big risk of signing for Free Trade with America. But some day that has to be done. I see no escape from this FATE and DESTINY.

So what you want is a DELAY of Free Trade or what else ???

Thanks for contributions.

Vicente Duque