Mfg Leaders See Hope in CAFTA Defeat

Cleveland, July 28, 2005: The Northeast Ohio Campaign for American Manufacturing today said that Congress' vote on the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) reflects the growing lack of confidence in the direction of US trade policy.

Peter Accorti, VP of Talan Products in Cleveland, and Co-Chair of NEOCAM said, “Despite over a year of lobbying by global corporations and tremendous pressure from the Administration, CAFTA squeaked through with just a 2-vote margin. This shows that the time has come to recast the debate over US trade policy. There is serious division in Congress when it comes to US trade policy.” This view was echoed in a front-page Wall Street Journal article on July 29th entitled, "Cafta Vote Clouds Prospects for Other Trade Deals".

Nowhere is this more evident than among the congressional delegation of NE Ohio. “We found champions for a 21^st Century trade policy on both sides of the aisle,” Accorti said, and pointed to the heroic stance of Congressman Bob Ney (R-18), as well as Congresspersons Kaptur, Kucinich, Tubbs-Jones and S. Brown – all Democrats. Ney joined 26 other Republicans in voting against the bill.

“We are very disappointed in the position taken by Congressman Steve LaTourette (R-Painesville). He has been a strong defender of US based manufacturing up until last night,” Accorti said. “As late as Friday of last week he was a firm ‘no’ on CAFTA. But literally at the 11^th hour he buckled, despite the urging of leaders from business, churches, unions and other constituents to vote against CAFTA. We are very disappointed.” Accorti was also disappointed in Ralph Regula’s vote. “We thought getting Regula’s support was a long shot,” he said, “and at least he didn’t play both sides of the fence, but given the economic strain his district is under we thought we had a shot at getting him to vote no as well.”

According to Accorti, “The outmoded allegiance to an 18^th century theory of so-called ‘free trade’ is not in the best interests of American communities or our national or economic security,” Accorti said. “We need a comprehensive approach that results in reciprocal trade, and that creates jobs, with family-supporting wages, wealth and opportunities in American communities. As we’ve learned with NAFTA, and will see with CAFTA, the current trade regime does not accomplish this.”