Thursday, August 2, 2012
Floor Speech: Senator Coons calls on colleagues to reauthorize key provision of Africa trade law
As Delived on August 2, 2012
Mr. President, I rise today to speak both in favor of the passage of the bill, Senate bill 3326, and to speak against the Coburn Amendment. I first want to thank Leader Reid and Senator McConnell, as well as Senators Baucus and Hatch, for working together diligently to find a path forward for passing this bill. And I want to recognize Senator Coburn and Senator Menendez for being willing to work with us to get to today.
I say with some regret that I stand to speak against the Coburn Amendment, because I respect and recognize Senator Coburn's determination to hold this body accountable, to find pathways forward to deal with our record deficit and debt. And in that broader objective, I look forward to working with him on finding responsible pay-fors in future bills and in finding ways that we can steadily partner to reduce the deficit and to find and root out waste and abuse in federal spending. But I have to say, that in this particular case on this amendment on this day, if we change the pay-for, we kill the bill.
We have heard clearly from Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Camp and from his ranking minority, Congressman Levin, that they will not take up this bill if amended in this form, if broken and reassembled, if sent over in any other way. The pressure of today, and the pressure of the value, the importance of this bill is what I choose to speak to.
I may at some point reserve time to speak to other issues embedded in the amendment, but I first wanted to speak to the underlying bill. I am the chairman of the African Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and it is in some ways my special honor and challenge to help this body grasp why the African Growth and Opportunity Act is important for us to reauthorize today.
Specifically, what I'm speaking to is the third-party fabric provision, which expires in September. This Chamber is about to go out of session later today and every day that we delay in the reauthorization of this critical provision costs jobs, costs opportunity, and costs our future.
Let speak to that for a few minutes, if I might, Mr. President. Creating American jobs and fueling our economic recovery is my top priority and I know it is for many members of this body. That's why I'm here to talk about one of the things we can do to strengthen our economic security. And it may surprise you, but the truth is, one of the best ways to look for that future opportunity is one that was considered among the least likely just a few years ago in sub-Saharan Africa.
Access to emerging markets is critical to America's health and growth and increased political stability, rising wages, and an emerging middle class across Africa makes the most promising continent for countries willing to invest in a long-term partnership with the United States. In AGOA, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, and its Third Country Fabric Provision, the U.S. has seized this opportunity to pursue broad and mutually beneficial economic relationships that give American consumers and businesses economic security by allowing eligible countries to export apparel from Africa that's more affordable to the American consumer, and in so doing, create jobs in Africa that otherwise would be elsewhere in the world.
Mr. President, this key provision, as I’ve said, expires in September, and our delay in moving forward with reauthorization that has earned strong bipartisan support is already disrupting production for American apparel companies along with the supply chain their customers depend on. In my view, we cannot wait to take action. America can't afford to turn its back on African markets and Congress can't afford to turn its back on extending this provision. Every three years, since 2000, Congress has unanimously passed the reauthorization of this provision without controversy. And it is in my view time to do so again. I respect Senator Coburn’s concern that we must change business as usual in this chamber but the timing of this amendment and the timing of this concern is, to me, not wise.
Today, Secretary Clinton is in the middle of a continent-wide tour of African countries. She is engaging with countries for strong emerging middle classes, offer us great opportunity, future economic partnership, and very real political partnership - from Ghana to Ethiopia to Tanzania to a half dozen other countries - some of the fastest growing economies in the world are in sub-Saharan Africa.
The seven countries that are the fastest-growing economies in sub-Saharan Africa are home to 350 million potential consumers of our products. And, in my view, that's why I'm urging my colleagues to vote against the Coburn Amendment and to allow us to pass this critically important bill today. Failing to do so, in my view, is bad both for Africa and for America. Reauthorizing this provision supports the poorest African workers, the vast majority of them women, and Senator Isakson, who is my capable and talented ranking minority on the African Affairs Subcommittee, joined with Congressman Smith and Congresswoman Bass, who are our counterparts in the House, in hosting a meeting three months and six months ago with roughly 35 ambassadors from all over the continent who pleaded with us to reauthorize this critical provision.
The economic benefits of a strong middle class in Africa are obvious. A pool of new consumers hungry for American products, potential partners for us and countries with flourishing middle classes are more likely to have strong democratic institutions, good governance, and low corruption. They are more likely to be stable and bulwarks against emerging sources of instability in Africa, a region I think is vital to our future.
In short then, Mr. President, reauthorizing this provision and continuing our strong bipartisan support of tradition for AGOA is where the United States can continue to differentiate itself from competitors like China, which recently surpassed the U.S. as Africa's number one trading partner. The U.S. has exports to sub-Saharan Africa that exceeded $21 billion last year, growing at a pace that exceeds our exports to the rest of the world. Africans want to partner with us, they want to work with us, and they seek opportunity. The sort of bipartisanship that in the past that has allowed AGOA third country fabric provision to be reauthorized without controversy is one that I think we should embrace again today. Let's end the delays and reauthorize this provision.
Mr. President, I yield three minutes of my time if I might, to the senator from Georgia who would like to speak to the issue of the value of the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
__________________________________________________________________
Mr. President, I want to thank my colleague from Oklahoma for his remarks, if I might just conclude my comments on this amendment by speaking in a little detail to the amendment and its substance. The senator from Oklahoma essentially directs the administration to find $192 million in reductions in spending in the following agencies: the Department of Commerce, the Small Business Administration, the Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the Trade and Development Agency. In my role as the chair of the African Affairs Subcommittee, we recently held a hearing on expanding U.S. trade opportunities in Africa for exactly the reasons that I elucidated previously, that there is enormous growth, there are great opportunities across the continent.
Our competitors from all over the world, not just China, but Brazil and Russia and other European countries are expanding their investment and their seizure of these opportunities in a way that we are not. The structure of this amendment would simply declare that there's $200 million of waste and duplication at several important trade agencies and direct the administration to slash their budgets for that amount and then hope for the best. That is what Senator Coburn’s proposed offset would do. These are agencies that promote and finance U.S. exports and help small and large U.S. businesses export and compete in a global market.
And in my view, exports particularly to this market mean jobs. So I am not convinced that now is the time to blindly slash our ability to export. I think we should instead be encouraging exports. And in the context of the federal budget, $192 million is a very, very small amount of money. I look forward to working with Senator Coburn to find other places where we can find reductions of this size. But this amendment, at this time on this day, would kill the broader and more important objective of reauthorizing the African Growth and Opportunity Act Third Party Fabric Provision, of moving forward with relevant Burma sanctions and of moving forward with an important technical fix to CAFTA. This is a carefully crafted compromise bill that the House will enact once we enact it.
I urge my colleagues to vote against the Coburn Amendment and to move forward with passage of this vital bill. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
###