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[MDOLAN <mdolan@citizen.org>]

  Members of Congress Join With Individuals Harmed By NAFTA 
  to Question White House Fast-Track Trade Proposal
  
  
  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE					CONTACT:
  September 9, 1997					Steve Wattenmaker
  									
  WASHINGTON, D.C.  Four members of Congress joined four Americans from 
  across the country on Capitol Hill today to challenge the Clinton 
  administration's fast-track trade proposal.  Rep. William Pascrell (D-NJ), 
  George Brown (D-CA) and Allen Boyd (D-FL) attended the event. Rep. Julia 
  Carson (D-IN) issued a statement that was presented at the news conference.
  
       The news conference was called by the Citizens Trade Campaign, a 
  national coalition pressing for environmental and social justice in trade 
  policy.
  
       Speaking along with members of Congress were Sue Doneth, a Michigan 
  mother of three whose young daughter was stricken in last spring's epidemic 
  of  Hepatitis A traced to tainted imported strawberries; Richard Sparks, a 
  former U.S. Customs inspector from Laredo, Texas; Dale Short, an 18-year 
  employee of the Osh-Kosh apparel plant in Celina, Tennessee, who lost her 
  job due to NAFTA job displacement to Mexico; and Norman Sullivan, a Montana 
  spokesman for farmers and ranchers in the West who have been hit hard by 
  NAFTA.
  
       "These individual's stories are the real measure of NAFTA," Rep. 
  Pascrell told the news conference. "The Administration says that there is 
  no relation between fast track and past history. They are mistaken."
  
       According to Rep. Pascrell, it was the human side of NAFTA that swayed 
  his views on U.S. trade policy. "Not too long ago, I supported what NAFTA 
  was supposed to do: benefit American industry, workers, and the 
  environment," he said. "Today, three years later, I have to admit NAFTA is 
  a failure."
  
       Rep. George Brown called the fast track process undemocratic, "because 
  it strips the American people and their elected representatives in Congress 
  of the right to amend and improve new agreements. The NAFTA experience has 
  shown that in the 1990s and beyond, trade deals are too important and too 
  complex to be presented to Congress on a `take it or leave it' basis."
  
       Michigan mom Sue Doneth described the frightening illlness of her 
  young daughter who contracted Hepatitus A virus for tainted imported 
  strawberries. In all, more than 270 children and adults were felled in the 
  outbreak in Michigan last spring.
  
       "We have to look at what an expansion of NAFTA would mean," Doneth 
  said.  "In my opinion, fast track is a sure track to food safety disaster. 
  Increased volume ofproduce, NAFTA imposed limits on inspection and 
  inadequate funding have all combined to completely overwhelm our food 
  inspection system."
  
       The community of Celina, Tennessee, has been decimated by NAFTA, 
  former garment worker Dale Short told the news conference. " In all, 
  Osh-Kosh closed seven plants around Celina, throwing 1,300 people out of 
  work," she said. "When you think that our population is only 7,000 you can 
  see that we've been hit hard."  Short said that she qualified for 
  retraining as a worker certified as having lost her job because of NAFTA. 
  "They taught us some drafting in vocational school," she said, "but there 
  aren't any drafting jobs to get."
  
       Norman Sullivan, president of the Montana Farmers Union, also 
  described a potential food safety disaster involving inspection of 
  processed Canadian beef coming into Montana. 
  
       "For example, in one week only 4,000 pounds out of a total of 400,000 
  pounds of processed beef was inspected," Sullivan said. One USDA inspector, 
  Sullivan said, walked off the job rather than rubber-stamp the flawed 
  inspection process.   
  
  
  ****************************************************************************
   /s/ Mike Dolan, Field Director, Global Trade Watch, Public Citizen
  
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