WASHINGTON – Congressman Dale E. Kildee (D-MI) voted today against another harmful free trade agreement that continues the failed unbalanced trade philosophies of the past decade.  Kildee cast a no vote on the U.S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which passed the House of Representatives today by a narrow vote of 221-205.  The FTA, signed in January, was expected to pass the House easily, but reports of Oman’s failure to comply with basic labor standards plus the inclusion of provisions to allow foreign ownership of U.S. ports and other critical infrastructure, created a mostly united Democratic opposition to the bill.

“This FTA is just one more in a series of flawed trade deals that build on NAFTA’s tradition of exporting American jobs and factories, leaving behind unemployed Americans, low wages, and an even lower standard of living,” said Kildee. “This agreement undermines essential worker rights abroad, as Oman prohibits independent labor unions and has an ugly record of forced labor.  Even worse, provisions in this bill would allow foreign investors to acquire and control port activities within U.S. borders, something Congress should have figured out by now that the American people do not support.”

The U.S. and Oman signed a free trade agreement on January 19.  This FTA is part of the Bush Administration's strategy to expand the failed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) model to the Middle East.  However, Oman is listed by the U.S. State Department as being a home of human trafficking.  Oman has been promising for more than one year to change its labor laws in order to meet basic International Labor Organization standards.  Instead, Oman has fully addressed only 1 of 10 areas where its laws fail to comply with those standards.  Oman also has no law prohibiting employers from confiscation workers’ documents, a practice that has led to widespread reports of forced labor.

The Oman FTA also goes beyond NAFTA and CAFTA in explicitly promoting the rights of foreign companies – including government-owned companies – to operate sensitive American infrastructure like ports and electricity grids.  Earlier this year, the U.S. government granted Dubai Ports World, a state-run foreign corporation, control over several U.S. ports.  The Oman FTA would grant such firms incorporated in Oman a “right of establishment” to acquire and operate landside port activities and other service sector businesses within the United States.

Earlier this month, Kildee spoke at a press conference in Washington to highlight the widespread labor abuses in Oman and the necessity to defeat this agreement before more American jobs are sent overseas. 

For years, the American people have been promised that bilateral and regional trade agreements would throw open the doors of international markets eager for American goods.  However, in the ten years following NAFTA, which Congressman Kildee opposed, a million American jobs have been lost, and corporations have flocked to where labor standards are weakest.  In nearby Jordan, a country with a stronger labor rights record than Oman, recent reports have shown that the U.S.-Jordan FTA, approved in 2001, has led to repeated labor rights abuses and human trafficking.

“After the disastrous results of NAFTA in this country, why the Bush Administration would want to expand that model to the Middle East is beyond me,” concluded Kildee.  “The Administration and the leadership in Congress continue to make it clear in telling America that protecting domestic jobs and upholding basic labor standards is of no interest to them.”

Nearly three million manufacturing jobs have been lost since the Bush Administration took office in 2001.  In that time, the U.S. trade deficit has nearly doubled, and is on track to climb to $815 billion in 2006 – exceeding last year’s record-breaking deficit with the U.S. importing $2 billion more in goods and services everyday than we export.

Congressman Kildee has voted against every harmful trade agreement responsible for America’s staggering trade deficit, including NAFTA, CAFTA, the U.S.-Chile FTA, the U.S.-Singapore FTA and the U.S.-Australia FTA.  He has also voted against legislation establishing the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), normalizing permanent trade relations with China (PNTR), and fast-track trade promotion authority, which prevents Congress from amending free trade agreements.