These notes on yesterday's CAFTA hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee come from Oxfam trade policy advisor Stephanie Weinberg. We have posted them online since there was little to no reporting of the results of yesterday's hearing in the corporate press.
The hearing began around 10am and lasted until nearly 6pm. Overall, it was a very acrimonious debate between Republicans and Democrats. Most Democrats were pretty critical (except Jefferson who is supporting), and most Republicans were gushing with praise (except for Foley who complained about sugar). The Republicans seemed to be choreographed, fed questions that gave USTR the opportunity to expand on all the wonders of CAFTA. Neither Republicans nor the USTR were willing to accept even the slightest criticisms - they ridiculed all opposition and tried to dismiss it. It was clear that Republicans had rallied their forces to put forward a strong front following their weak showing at the Senate Finance hearing last week.
There were brief statements by the chair (Thomas) and ranking member (Rangel), and by the sub-committee chair (Shaw) and ranking member (Cardin). Then Allgeier gave a summary of his written testimony. Members were then given a chance to question Allgeier and/or make a statement. A total of 31 Members commented and questioned Allgeier. At least one (Emanuel, D-IL), had to leave before his turn came to speak - too bad, because he was going to raise questions about intellectual property and access to medicines.
There were 2 panels of witnesses after Allgeier. The first one included representatives of the Business Coalition for US-Central America Trade, the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America, the Entertainment Industry Coalition for Free Trade, the AFL-CIO, and the Port of New Orleans. About 9 Republicans stayed, but on the Democrat side, only Levin and Becerra (and Jefferson – pro CAFTA) stayed. Shaw and Thomas grilled and ridiculed Richard Trumka, who testified for the AFL. Levin and Becerra both stood up for labor, and Becerra very cleverly got one over on Thomas. Thomas had pushed Trumka to say whether the AFL would support CAFTA if it had labor provisions like those in the US-Jordan agreement. When Trumka would not commit, Thomas lashed out that the AFL was just against trade. So Becerra asked Presser from the Entertainment Industry if he would support CAFTA if the IP rules stated that countries only needed to enforce their current laws. When Presser responded in a similar way as Trumka had, Thomas tried to object but the point was already well made.
The second panel of witnesses was on agriculture (which I missed). There was Members panel at the end, which Thomas had agreed to add in the morning. But because it was so late, some Democrats who has planned to speak were unable to stay - such as Sherrod Brown. However, Kaptur and DeFazio made statements against, and Burton and Brady spoke in favor.
