International Trade committee  I have testified a number of times before Congress and in the Senate. Basically, we send our material immediately to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative as well as to the State Department and to the labour department. I know that the president of the United Steelworkers of the United States and Canada, Leo Gerard, was in very high-level adjudications with the State Department.

International Trade committee  For example, when we issued our report in 2006, the government literally went into a state of shock. The head of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative asked us how we did this. In other words, in the first five years of the free trade agreement, the U.S. government didn't have a clue as to what was going on.

International Trade committee  There have been minor improvements, but by and large inside factories there remain sweatshop conditions and illegal conditions.

International Trade committee  The U.S. cables don't really give their names, but it says here that this official highlighted specific restrictions with the Justice Minister Odeh, including the threat of high fines up to U.S. $20,000—later on, they say it's $28,000—under the press and publication law and the threat of imprisonment under the prison code.

International Trade committee  Oh, yes.

International Trade committee  I would think it would be a great idea. I know there are very decent and high-level people in the State Department who are very involved in this at the U.S. Trade Representative's office. They have never put a block on us or stopped this dialogue. The U.S. Trade Representative's office has been fantastic.

International Trade committee  You're absolutely correct about the lack of democracy in Jordan, the lack of freedom of the press, the lack of the right to organize. The workers themselves, the guest workers—we're talking from their perspective—come to places like Jordan because they're incredibly poor. They want to give their families a little better life, so they're willing to travel all the way from Bangladesh or Sri Lanka and come to a factory like Classic.

International Trade committee  We're not experts on the case of Colombia, but I do believe they still have, by far, the highest death rate of trade union people in any country in the world, so problems do remain. I can tell you, if any of you wanted to go with us to Jordan, I could give you my word that we could hold a meeting with 1,000 or 2,000 workers at the Classic factory, and those guest workers would speak the truth to you if they were guaranteed that there wouldn't be reprisals against them.

International Trade committee  If I'm understanding you correctly, I think this is just above my level. I mean, I do believe that the United States government has a very close relationship to the Government of Jordan and the free trade agreement was really meant to bring Jordan into an alliance with other nearby countries, such as Israel and all.

International Trade committee  I would very much be in favour of there being a conference, together with the United States and Canada, to have labour involvement from Canada and the United States, to have involvement from our embassies. I think if Canada, before moving ahead on the free trade agreement.... If there were some way to gather together with the Canadian Parliament and U.S. officials, along with labour input from Canada and the United States, I think we could make a very powerful statement to Jordan that things will have to change if a free trade agreement really does go forward.

International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  I would say 100% yes.

International Trade committee  Yes. This is from a U.S. cable from a high-level State Department official: Only when the king and government believe that the U.S. Congress and U.S. administration are serious about certain reforms will they take notice and attempt some level of reform. Continued engagement by senior U.S. officials, such as...will keep the pressure on the Jordanians and indicate to them that their reform efforts are being monitored by those who also follow the considerable foreign assistance levels allocated to Jordan.

International Trade committee  It's 100%. In other words, there are no garment factories without guest workers; the Jordanians won't work in the factories there. I understand that there's one Jordanian factory now getting off the ground that is fully Jordanian workers. I have to apologize, as I don't know enough about that, but in terms of exports, all of that is coming out of factories that are operated by guest workers.

International Trade committee  Yes. The problem is that the free trade agreement has been up and running for more than 10 years and has failed the workers. The will is just not there. If it had been implemented correctly, this would indeed have been a new model. This would be something that the United States, Jordan, and Canada could be quite satisfied with and encouraged by.