CBI Action Alert (Senate)

[MDOLAN <mdolan@citizen.org>]

  [The information for this alert was provided on July 9, 1997, by the 
  U.S./Guatemala Labor Education Project, P.O. Box 268-290, Chicago, IL 
  60626; Tel: (773) 262-6502; e-mail: usglep@igc.apc.org]
  
  URGENT!!!  PLEASE ACT ON THIS ALERT:
  
  House Tax Bill Contains $200 Million in New Benefits
  For Central American Maquiladora Businesses; No New Benefits for Maquila 
  Workers
  
  The House of Representatives is quietly trying to extend NAFTA trade 
  benefits to the Central American and Caribbean apparel-for-export sector.  
  
  The so-called Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) parity measure,
  originally introduced by Rep. Phil Crane, R-IL, is part of the omnibus 
  reconciliation tax bill that has already passed the House.  The Crane 
  measure would expand the long-standing Caribbean Basin Initiative duty-free 
  trade program to phase in NAFTA-equivalent trade benefits for apparel, 
  shoes and petroleum, commodities that are currently excluded from the CBI 
  trade program.  The Senate version of the
  reconciliation bill does not contain a CBI-parity provision. 
  
  Central American governments and business leaders have lobbied for three 
  years to obtain the same trade benefits provided to Mexico under NAFTA, 
  arguing that Mexico has an unfair trade advantage that has harmed the 
  Central American maquiladora sector.  However, the
  Central American maquiladora sector has continued to grow, despite Mexico's 
  lower duties.  Since NAFTA was passed, CBI countries have increased their 
  total share of U.S. imports of apparel from 19% to 23%. 
  
  The Crane bill does nothing to ensure that Central American workers obtain 
  a share of the new trade benefits.  While the version of the Crane measure 
  in the reconciliation bill apparently does not remove current provisions 
  that link CBI benefits to progress on respecting worker rights, these 
  provisions have proven to be inadequate.  Central American trade unions and 
  those in the U.S. who support Central
  American workers believe that the extension of new trade benefits to the 
  Central American maquiladora sector should be conditioned on measures to 
  ensure that the benefits be shared by Central American workers through 
  strong worker rights provisions.  
  
  The attempt to sneak the controversial Crane measure through the 
  reconciliation bill represents an attack on both Central American and U.S. 
  workers and worker rights advocates, depriving fair trade supporters an 
  opportunity to engage in efforts to strengthen to worker rights provisions 
  of U.S. trade laws and build a trading system that is not based on the 
  exploitation of Third World workers who are denied their basic rights.  The 
  House's action is a back-door attempt to ensure that worker rights 
  advocates have no opportunity to push for stronger worker rights 
  provisions.  The drum beat of media coverage of worker rights violations in 
  the Central American maquiladora sector no doubt has CBI-parity supporters 
  concerned about having an honest and public debate on U.S. trade-worker 
  rights policy vis-a-vis the Central American maquiladora sector.
  
  In a clear indication of efforts to side-step a public debate, the bill 
  authorizes the new trade benefits for only one year, thereby keeping down 
  costs represented by the loss of duties that would no longer be imposed.  
  However, the strategy of the provision's sponsors is to get the nose of the 
  camel under the tent, knowing that once the benefits are provided for one 
  year they will be extended in future years.  The five- year cost of 
  CBI-parity would be $1 billion.
  
  Senators Patrick Moynihan, Trent Lott and William Roth have been named to 
  represent the Senate in a conference committee with House counterparts on 
  the section of the reconciliation bill that contains CBI- parity.
  
  TIMELINE:  IMMEDIATE.  This bill is going to conference July 10 and 
  observers expect a conference (i.e. compromise) version of the bill to be 
  completed as early as the middle of the week of July 14.
  
  ACTION:  
  
  Contact your U.S. senators immediately.  Ask them to contact
  Senators Moynihan, Lott and Roth and urge that they remove CBI-
  parity from the reconciliation bill.
  
  For more information, contact Steve Coats at the U.S./Guatemala Labor 
  Education Project; Tel: 773-262-6502; e-mail: usglep@icg.apc.org
  
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  ***** NOTES from MDOLAN (MDOLAN @ CITIZEN) at 7/10/97 11:25 AM