From Sirotablog(
http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/ )-
"A Leader named Sherrod Brown
Ohio Rep. Sherrod Brown (D) is one of the true progressive champions in Congress. He is leading the fight against the corporate-written Central American Free Trade Agreement. And amazingly, he convinced the "free" traders at the Washington Post to run one of his terrific op-eds. Go read it":
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/30/AR2005053000774.html?sub=AR An Unbalanced Trade Policy
By Sherrod Brown
Tuesday, May 31, 2005; Page A17
You can set your watch by it.
Whenever a trade pact comes to Congress, its supporters warn the American people that if we don't pass the agreement our economy will be hurt and our trading partners will be devastated.
An annual U.S. trade deficit that has gone from $38 billion to $617 billion in a dozen years makes those claims hard to believe. And since Congress passed President Bush's trade promotion authority three years ago, we have lost one-sixth of our manufacturing jobs.
When the proponents of trade agreements have nothing left to sell, the name-calling and misrepresentations begin. Now that the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) has been sent to Congress, its supporters are calling its opponents isolationists, or protectionists, or even anti-democratic. They claim that those who oppose this trade agreement are simply special interests opposed to trade, that they don't care about the poor in the developing world, that they want to pull up the ladder and keep out foreigners. For a change, let's look at the facts...