Reply #24: I actually think free trade is good for our hemisphere.

[Oerdin]

Surprise, surprise. Some of us are Democrats who do want to see an end to the begger thy neighbor protectionism which the rich countries have been using to empoverish the poor. How can poor countries in our hemisphere develop and meet the basic needs of their population without us allowing their products access to our markets? The only jobs which are put at risk by this bill are textile jobs but if we do nothing China will take all of those with in 5-10 years. American textile workers making $5.25 per hour just can't beat Chinese workers getting paid $0.25 per hour no matter how hard they try.

Our choice now is do we let China have all of those jobs or do we try to spread them around a bit? I say if the US can't keep them then let's at least make sure Central America has a fight chance. The bonus is the Latin Americans almost exclusively buy US cotton and normally import US made fabric so we could at least keep those jobs. The Chinese have a protectionist system designed to promote the US of Chinese grown cotton and Chinese made fabric.

If we were serious about stopping sweat shops and trying to help American workers then we'd be campaigning against China's obvious abuses and it's artificially low currency instead of trying to keep Central Americans down.