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Hayes' Switch Passes Cafta ; Generally, Textile Companies With Operations in Central America or Plan Operations There Support the Treaty, and Smaller Companies Oppose It.

Posted on: Saturday, 30 July 2005, 00:00 CDT

Textile leaders who opposed the Central America Free Trade Agreement went into Wednesday's late-night vote in the House thinking they had the numbers needed to defeat the controversial treaty.

They came up one vote short.

The House approved CAFTA 217-215. A tie would have defeated the agreement, which lowers trade barriers between the United States and the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

The agreement became a referendum on the Bush administration's trade policies.

"We had a majority going into the vote," said Lloyd Wood, a spokesman for the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition in Washington. "The CAFTA proponents squeezed the blood out of the turnip."

One of those who got squeezed, it appears, was North Carolina congressman Robin Hayes, a Republican from the 8th District.

Hayes initially voted against CAFTA Wednesday, but later changed his vote to yes.

Bloomberg News reported Thursday that "a 40-minute delay in the vote was broken after the Republican leadership convinced (Hayes) to switch his vote."

Hayes said he was not pressured to do so.

He said House Speaker Dennis Hastert came to him after he had voted and made a late pitch for the congressman's support.

"He basically said, 'We need this vote very badly,"' Hayes recalled. "'We have exhausted all our potential sources and we need your vote. In order for you to vote for us we will do whatever we need to do in your district for people to keep their jobs.'

"That was a very strong promise from a very honorable man. It was an easy decision at that point."

After switching his vote, Hayes said he got assurances from Hastert, a representative from the White House and the office of U.S. Trade Representative that the administration would take a tougher stance against China.

"China is the big play here," Hayes said. "Everybody knows China cheats."

Hayes said Thursday he had gotten calls from officials at Greensboro-based International Textile Group, which has two plants in his district, indicating their support for CAFTA.

One of those calls came Wednesday from Joe Gorga, ITG's chief executive officer, who said the agreement would benefit the company's plants in Hayes's district.

"I laid out the business dynamics in support of CAFTA and we won very narrowly," Gorga said. "I think Robin made the right decision and I think our industry will benefit from that. For the politics behind it, you are asking the wrong person."

Only one other member of North Carolina's House delegation, Sue Myrick, a Republican from the 9th District, voted for the agreement.

Rep. Howard Coble, a Republican whose 6th District includes part of the Triad, voted against CAFTA because of his late mother, Johnnie Holt Coble, who used to work in a textile mill.

"Because of my mama, I know the importance of textile jobs to North Carolina's economy and a way of life that is all-too-fast disappearing," Coble said in a statement released prior to the vote. "I fear that CAFTA will accelerate the demise of these domestic textile jobs."

CAFTA supporters say the treaty will help maintain U.S. textile jobs by providing a strong industry presence in this hemisphere - one that can compete with China.

But because of the loopholes in the agreement, opponents say it will destroy textile jobs.

Coble's office said 80 percent of the letters, e-mail and calls from constituents were opposed to CAFTA.

Many of those communications came from people in small textile companies.

Generally, textile companies that have operations in Central America or plan operations there supported the agreement. Those that do not - generally the smaller companies - opposed it.

"In my opinion, Congress and the president turned their backs on the American worker," said Nim Harris, the head of Pickett Hosiery Mills in Burlington, which has seen its work force drop from 150 to 100 this year. "I firmly believe there will be retribution at the polls for those who voted for CAFTA."

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or donpatterson@news- record.com YES

Source: Greensboro News Record

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