Oregon Fair Trade Campaign

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Mobilizing Against the 2009 WTO Ministerial

As part of the global days of action against the new World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial, thousands of people from across the Pacific Northwest converged in downtown Portland on December 5th to speak out against the proposed expansion of failed "free trade" policies within the World Trade Organization (WTO).  The Oregon Fair Trade Campaign led a coalition of more than 75 labor, environmental, immigrant rights, faith and social justice groups in organizing the mass march and rally.  

 

That week, the WTO held its largest negotiations on international trade and investment in many years in Geneva, Switzerland.  On their agenda was the expansion of trade pacts that would:

• Cause further offshoring of Oregon jobs
• Prohibit new banking regulations designed to prevent the next financial crisis
• Force global warming policies to conform with restrictive commercial agreements
• Expand agricultural practices that push small farmers off their land and force migration
• Require countries to accept imported foods and consumer goods that fail to meet local safety standards

Thank you to everyone who made the "D5" demonstration such a powerful event!  To learn more about it, please visit www.december5.org.  
 
Thanks to the hard work of fair trade activists around the globe, the WTO negotiations in Geneva didn't make much progress.  Unfortunately, the same corporate interests behind the WTO are trying to advance their agenda through regional and bilateral trade agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the South Korea Free Trade Agreement.  

A landmark piece of fair trade legislation called the TRADE Act continues to gain support in Congress.  The bill offers a way to help ensure that future trade policy actually benefits working people and strengthens the economy, as well as protecting consumers, the environment, public health and small farmers, both at home and abroad. 

Oppose Bush's Hangover Trade Deal with Panama

In early 2009, the quick work of fair trade advocates across the country stopped the Obama administration from introducing the Panama Free Trade Agreement -- a trade deal negotiated by the Bush administration that repeats many of the same major problems found in NAFTA and CAFTA.  

Bush's Panama FTA represents business-as-usual on trade, and is not the type of change that voters were promised.  While it was not introduced in 2009, it could still come up again in 2010.  Learn more about the Panama FTA and take action to stop it.
 

ORFTC's 2009 Trade Delegation to Mexico

In March 2009, the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign and Cross Border Labor Organizing Commission led a delegation of trade activists to Mexico to examine the topic of cross-border opposition to NAFTA.

Delegates met with small farmers, labor leaders, community organizers and maquiladora workers in Tlaxcala, Mexico City and Ciudad Juarez.  Discussions took place on the affects of NAFTA in Mexico, the steps people are taking to oppose it and what NAFTA renegotiation could mean for working people on both sides of the border.  

Visit our online report-back for a summary of the delegations findings and audio highlights from some of our meetings.  
 

 
"Free Trade" and Financial Deregulation

"Regulation" has long been a dirty word in America -- but Depression-era banking regulations were what prevented major financial market crashes for over 60 years.  Visit ORFTC's

Trade in the 2008 Elections

Free Trade and Forced Migration

• An ORFTC fact sheet, template newsletter article and Power Point presentation on "Free Trade and Forced Migration."
  
• Basic principles for dealing with the question of undocumented immigration.
  
• Links to organizations at the state and national level that are helping to address the root causes of migration.