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U.S.
Senator Member of the Agriculture, Energy and Veterans Affairs
Committees |
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For Immediate
Release June 30, 2005 |
CONTACT: Cody Wertz – Press Secretary 202-228-3630 Jen Clanahan – Deputy Press Secretary 303-455-7600 |
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| SEN. SALAZAR’S
SENATE FLOOR STATEMENT ON CAFTA Washington, D.C. – United States Senator Ken Salazar gave the following statement on the Senate floor today voicing his opposition to DR-CAFTA. Salazar cited the proposal’s lack of protections for American farmers and ranchers especially those on the eastern plains of Colorado. Included below is Senator Salazar’s full floor statement. Mr. President, I rise today to speak on the Dominican Republic – Central American Free Trade Agreement. At the outset, let me say I appreciate the efforts of Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and his heartfelt advocacy for this agreement. I look forward to working with him to create jobs for Coloradans and on trade and commerce issues, including on future revisions to this agreement. I have spent the last several months learning more about the DR-CAFTA agreement, listening to individual farmers and ranchers throughout Colorado on their concerns about being left behind. Based on that extensive deliberation, I regret that I must oppose this agreement, because it continues a policy here in Washington that forgets huge parts of this country. I have concluded that Colorado’s farmers and ranchers are left behind by this agreement. Colorado’s farmers and ranchers, and rural America, represent the “forgotten America,” where we as a nation have failed. For example, in my state of Colorado I have seen firsthand the “forgotten America.” Surveys done by the Colorado Department of Agriculture have cited steady declines in the number of cattle across my state. In fact, last year my state reported the lowest inventory of cattle since 1962. Furthermore, in 2002, 60 percent of farms and ranches in Colorado had annual sales of less than $10,000. Specifically, the eastern plains of Colorado are a good example of this “forgotten America.” It is home to farmers, ranchers and small rural communities that are vanishing, left behind by a Washington, DC that has lost touch with what is important to the people and the communities in the heartland. The eastern plains of Colorado are also home to sugar beet farmers who, in 2002 in order to save their farms, banded together with over 1,000 other sugar beet growers in Nebraska, Montana and Wyoming to form the Western Sugar Cooperative – sugar processing facilities, which continue to successfully operate today across Colorado and the other three states. These sugar beet growers believe that DR-CAFTA will set a precedent – a precedent that will send a message to our trade representatives that Congress will continue to allow haphazard negotiations of free trade agreements that, like DR-CAFTA, will chip away at important industries and programs like the sugar program. I will do all I can to not let these families and these communities continue to wither on the vine. At the same time, many agricultural organizations and farmers and ranchers throughout Colorado voiced concerns about the additional $100 million trade deficit created by CAFTA. I also recognize that trade agreements are fundamentally geopolitical documents with important impacts on our foreign policy. It pains me to vote against this agreement, Mr. President, because I recognize that many of our friends in these 6 countries see it as such an important symbol of America’s commitment to them. During the 1980’s, this country spent $5 billion in Central America in an effort to ensure that democracy and freedom markets triumphed. Because of the courage and strength of our Central American friends – like Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador – we see a region today that is defined by democracy and freedom – a region about which we could have only dreamed a short 20 years ago. It is in that context that I have come to conclude that this agreement is a missed opportunity. Twenty years ago, you could not pick up a newspaper without seeing a story – in banner headlines on the front page – about Central America. Today, these countries barely merit a mention in the newspapers – except for brief episodes like this one where for a couple of hours on the Senate floor and a couple of days in the White House the President turns his attention to our neighbors. Presidents in the last hundred years have pursued the Good Neighbor policy, the Alliance for Progress, and the Summit of the Americas. Those policies – though pursued by Administrations of differing parties – shared a common sense of commitment to and focus on Latin America. I am sad to conclude that this Administration’s policy toward this region has been episodic and disinterested. Consider this: The President’s flagship foreign assistance program, the Millennium Challenge Account, has yet to distribute one dime to Latin America;
Supporters of this agreement are now telling us that to vote against CAFTA is to vote against Latin America. That could only be true if you believe that our policy toward this important region should be based only on a single trade agreement.
It is not, and it should not be. I have personally urged the President to work with members of both parties to reinvigorate our policy toward this important region. Such a policy would;
Such a policy would be based on something larger than just this agreement, Mr. President, and I regret that the tremendous energy the Administration is now expending on this agreement has not laid out a vision and plan for the larger challenges, like illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and poverty, in this important region of our hemisphere. That is why this agreement represents such a lost opportunity to me, Mr. President. Lastly, Mr. President, I support trade. I recognize that increased trade is good for our economy, for our businesses, farmers, our workers and our families. But, again, I wish we were here today talking about how we are opening new markets for our producers. Even under the most optimistic scenario when this agreement is fully implemented, U.S. world exports are expected to increase by a miniscule amount if at all to this region. We simply need to be better at opening new markets, not just spend our time fighting to keep those we already have. If we spend all of our time fighting yesterday’s battles on market access, we will miss opportunities to leverage open new markets. That is why I have spent much of my first six months here in the Senate working with the Departments of Commerce and State to promote new markets, particularly for Colorado’s agricultural producers. That is why I asked Secretary Gutierrez to come to Denver last weekend to speak with Colorado’s business, labor and agriculture leaders. I am grateful for the Secretary having made that trip, and I appreciated his candid discussion with Coloradans. That is why I have met with the Ambassador of China to urge him to send a trade delegation to Colorado to see what our producers have to offer. And that is why I have met with the Director of the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Representation office to urge Taiwan to send a delegation to Colorado for the same reason. At the end of the day, Mr. President, I am hopeful that there will be a CAFTA that I can support. But just as importantly, I hope even more that we as a federal government will redouble our efforts to promote American exports into new markets around the world, including in our back yard. As I have deliberated on how to vote on this important agreement, Mr. President, I have thought a lot about Archbishop Oscar Romero, a courageous voice for dignity, change and opportunity in Central America. Shortly before he was assassinated he said, “El Reino está ya misteriosamente presente en nuestra tierra; cuando venga el Señor, se consumará su perfección. Ésta es la esperanza que nos alienta a los cristianos. Sabemos que todo esfuerzo por mejorar una sociedad, sobre todo cuando está tan metida esa injusticia y el pecado, es un esfuerzo que Dios bendice, que Dios quiere, que Dios nos exige.” “God's reign is already present on our earth in mystery. When the Lord comes, it will be brought to perfection. That is the hope that inspires Christians. We know that every effort to better society, especially when injustice and sin are so ingrained, is an effort that God blesses, that God wants, that God demands of us.” This agreement is not our best work as we try to improve our society and the societies of Central America and the Dominican Republic. We can do better. I hope we get the chance. I thank the President and yield the floor. # # # |
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