Washington, DC
The Caribbean Basin Trade Security Act is intended to provide tariff and market access equivalent to NAFTA for products from the Caribbean region. In its current form, however, it would harm working people in the United States and the Caribbean Basin.
It would result in the loss of thousands of jobs in the U.S. apparel industry. And it would undermine the protections of Caribbean Basin workers' rights that are now contained in several American trade laws.
The AFL-CIO strongly favors reform of our trade relationships with the Caribbean Basin countries, but any legislation should promote the interests of working people on both sides.
It should set clear, enforceable workers' rights and labor standards for any nation seeking NAFTA parity, including:
- an initial review of its observance of internationally recognized workers' rights, followed by annual reviews in which private individuals and organizations can participate fully;
- a system of sanctions that can target specific companies or areas that are guilty of violating workers' rights;
- guarantees that existing protections in the Caribbean Basin Initiative and elsewhere in U.S. law for workers in the region will be retained; and,
- the ending of tariff preferences levels (TPL) in the CBI.
The Caribbean Basin Trade Security Act in its present version does not meet those objectives. In five respects, it falls short of what is needed.
First, this Act would bring to an end the petitioning process in the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which has helped to give Caribbean Basin workers some leeway in organizing independent trade unions.
Second, a shift by these countries to the NAFTA framework, which is the bill's main purpose, would mean a wholesale extension of all the disadvantages contained in NAFTA. There would be strong protections for the rights of investors and multinational corporations -- intellectual property protection, favorable treatment of foreign investment, and the rest -- but the protections of workers' rights and environmental standards would be a mockery.
Third, this legislation confers automatic eligibility on all 27 nations in the Caribbean Basin, without reviewing whether they currently comply with international standards for workers' rights or even whether they meet any of the reciprocal obligations that Mexico undertook in NAFTA.
Fourth, the bill would manipulate tariff preference levels (TPL) and allow non-CBI producers to increase their access to U.S. markets through the back door. This would create great incentives for fraud and transshipment.
Finally, the Caribbean Basin Trade Security Act would cut duties on CBI imports and thus reduce tax revenues by more than $1 billion over the next four years.
The Caribbean Basin Trade Security Act now before Congress might prove to be a bonanza for the wealthy, but it would be a disaster for working people both there and here. Congress should remedy its defects or it should be defeated.