The KOREA FTA: A Bad Choice for Leftovers

Leftovers can often be a gamble. It’s even worse if they’ve been sitting out for three years, after being left behind by the last landlord.
President Bush and the Republic of Korea signed the KORUS Free Trade Agreement on June 30 2007. Because of concerns about an unlevel playing field on cars and catfish – on refrigerators and rice – on TV sets and shrimp, and a host of other issues, this FTA remains unresolved.
In fact, since Bush first pushed it, not one U.S. labor union, faith group, family farm organization or pro-environmental entity has yet to endorse or support the Korea FTA, or advocate for its passage.
Put simply, these old leftovers are not healthy.
Posted in Agriculture, Environment, Human Rights, Immigration, Indigenous Rights, Intellectual Property Rights, Labor, Security, Sovereignty, Womens' Rights, WTO | Comments Off on The KOREA FTA: A Bad Choice for Leftovers

Action Alert! TPP Talks Under Way

We need you to send a clear message to Congress that President Obama’s progressive vision of reform must be inserted into ongoing TPP trade talks.
 
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations start up this week in San Francisco, and include the U.S. and seven Asian and Latin American countries. These meetings offer a long-overdue opportunity to address trade failures of the past, and lay out a new framework for the future.
 
During his campaign, President Barack Obama outlined a bold vision for trade reform. He committed to create a new model for American trade agreements that puts working people, the environment, family farms and consumers first.
 
But we cannot be too optimistic. TPP negotiations present both possibilities and peril.
 
If corporations get their way, a future TPP will include the worst copy-cat provisions cloned from NAFTA and CAFTA. Their multinational pro-status-quo agenda would mirror much of the proposed Bush trade language with Colombia, Panama and Korea.
 
These failed attempts represent an ending point for the last administration, not a starting point for the new one.
 
We want to help the President craft a trade agreement that can last, rather than fighting against one that looks like the past.
 
That’s where you come in.
 
We need to make clear we need a new deal, or there’s no deal, when it comes to the TPP. 
 
Write to your elected officials and urge them to support the President’s trade reform commitments. Ask them to demand a TPP that ditches the NAFTA model and crafts a new agenda that works for all of us. Request that they use the TRADE Act as a roadmap to do it right this time.
 
Another world is possible!  Another trade model is needed!

For more on the TPP, visit www.citizenstrade.org/tpp.php
 
To see Obama trade commitments, visit www.citizenstrade.org/hope.php

Posted in Agriculture, Environment, Human Rights, Immigration, Indigenous Rights, Intellectual Property Rights, Labor, Security, Sovereignty, Womens' Rights | Comments Off on Action Alert! TPP Talks Under Way

TPP Must be More than NAFTA in the Asia Pacific

(Reuters) – Trade negotiators from the United States, Vietnam and six other Asia Pacific nations meet in San Francisco this week for work on a free-trade agreement that U.S. trade officials say could transform the region.

But beyond the rhetoric, business groups are looking for significant new export opportunities, while critics of past trade deals say the proposed pact must be more than “NAFTA in the Asia Pacific,” referring to the North American Free Trade Agreement they blame for U.S. job losses to Mexico.

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America Plays the Sucker in Global Trade

By Robyn E. Blumner, Times Columnist

Source: St. Petersburg Times

“It’s the trade deficit, stupid.” Maybe if people walked around with signs and T-shirts with that slogan rather than railed against the federal budget deficit, the American worker wouldn’t be in quite the fix he’s in. More people need to be mad that America is a sucker on global trade. Our trading partners ignore the rules handicapping our industries and we just take it, even as millions of Americans have lost jobs because of it.
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