Washington, D.C. – September 25, 2003 – Several Members of Congress today urged U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick to "proceed with caution" in the upcoming Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations. They warned that the United States will "immediately confront significant and troubling issues" involving the sugar industries of Brazil and Guatemala following the failed World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial conference in Cancun earlier this month. CAFTA talks are scheduled to begin October 20 in Houston, while the FTAA negotiations are beginning November 20 in Miami.

Representatives Mark Foley, R-FL, Alcee L. Hastings, D-FL., Neil Abercrombie, D-HI, Ben Cardin, D-MD and Adam Putnam, R-FL at a news conference today cautioned Ambassador Zoellick that if the United States continues to push ahead with regional trade agreements, the outcome could have an adverse impact on the important, well-paying jobs in the U.S. sugar industry. They forwarded Ambassador Zoellick a new report by Peter Buzzanell and Associates, Inc., that identified serious labor and environmental concerns involving the sugar industries of Brazil and Guatemala. Brazil is Latin America’s largest sugar exporter and Guatemala is the third-largest.

Brazil and Guatemala were among the countries that helped shut down the talks in Cancun, the members of Congress said in the letter. "It would be a perverse outcome indeed if the very same countries that prevented global success at Cancun became winners by negotiating trade-distorting regional trade agreements," they wrote. "For this reason, we urge you to immediately reassess the fundamental principles underlying regional and bilateral trade agreement negotiations to assure that they serve our national interest. It would be a clear mistake in the wake of Cancun to emphasize regional and bilateral trade agreements that tend to magnify, rather than reduce, trade distortions."

"Sugar workers in Florida and in the U.S. at large will not stand idly by and watch our jobs get shipped overseas to trading partners who do not guarantee their workers basic protections," said Frank Ortis, president of the Florida State Council on Machinists, IAM and executive director of the Florida Sugar Industry Labor Management Committee. "I stand with management in calling on Ambassador Zoellick to negotiate fair and enforceable agreements within the framework of WTO.”" Mr. Ortis was joined today by Felipe Alonzo, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) local 2152 in West Palm Beach, FL, Robert Miller, president, IAM local 57 and Truman Murphy, also of IAM local 57.

"The lack of environmental standards in Brazil and especially in Guatemala is alarming, all the more so in our increasingly global agriculture market," said Judy Sanchez, director of corporate communications, United States Sugar Corporation. "Air and water pollution runs rampant in both countries, and there is a general lack of enforcement over the use of pesticides. In sharp contrast, environmental standards in the U.S. are among the toughest in the world. Environmental issues are rarely addressed in regional trade agreements, undermining opportunities to create a level global playing field. For this reason, we stand behind Congressmen Foley and Hastings in their plea to Ambassador Zoellick."

The Buzzanell report, which was conducted for the Florida Sugar Industry Labor Management Committee, revealed that Brazil and Guatemala are rife with poor labor standards and unsatisfactory environmental controls. For instance, the minimum hourly wage for a sugar laborer in Brazil is 58 (U.S.) cents per hour and in Guatemala it is 64 (U.S.) cents, compared with a sugar field laborer in Florida who earns a minimum of $8.58 per hour. The average skilled worker in America earns ten times as much as their counterparts in Brazil and Guatemala. Child labor is also rampant in these countries. On the environmental front, Guatemala has no standards for air and water quality, and Brazil lacks the regulation of pesticides on crops that the U.S. does. (The report is available online at www.floridasugarlmc.com)

"The stakes are high as the United States enters the post-Cancun regional trade negotiations," wrote the members of Congress. "It would be a mistake to reach any agreement, whether bilateral or regional, that places high-paying American jobs in jeopardy by favoring countries that lack strong environmental and labor safeguards. Foreign countries should not be allowed to dictate the scope of regional and bilateral agreements by becoming roadblocks to global agreements. We stand ready to assist you in any way possible in the United States government's efforts to analyze and resolve these issues."

The letter was also signed by Reps. Allen Boyd, D-FL, Ed Case, D-HI, and Eliot Engel, D-NY, and is available at www.floridasugarlmc.com.