Stop Dem Sell-Out on Free Trade!
At a recent economic summit in Butte Montana, corporate leaders gathered to expound on the benefits of “free trade.” McGraw-Hill’s CEO, Harold McGraw III, attacked those pushing for basic labor, human rights and environmental protections in trade pacts as “protectionists” and “isolationists.” When it came time for questions, David Sirota asked McGraw a simple one: As a critic of “protections” in trade deals, does he oppose the intellectual property protections in trade deals that his company lobbies for, and on the flip side, if he supports such “protections” does he support similar protections for labor, human rights and the environment? He seemed utterly stunned, and stuttered through a truly incoherent 3 minute answer that telegraphed to the entire audience that he didn’t want to deal with the question.
That’s their defense of the current corporate-controlled “free trade” regime. Three minutes of incoherence.
Elected leaders like Senator Sherrod Brown are coming out strong against corporate-controlled trade deals, saying "Years of job killing trade agreements are taking their toll on workers and small business owners." But Speaker Pelosi and New York's own Charlie Rangel are talking about moving ahead with a “compromise” with the Bush White House on NAFTA-style “free trade” agreements. The deal adds labor standards, but fails to excise all of the outrageous NAFTA-style foreign investor, procurement and other rules that are destroying our middle class.
Cosmetic changes to NAFTA deals with Peru and Panama are not going to have any impact on our $800 billion deficit. If more Bush trade agreements are passed – even with these new labor and environmental standards – we are going to continue to lose jobs, our wages are going to continue to stagnate, and the country is going to continue on its downward slide.
Incredibly, the Pelosi/Rangel deal allows for the continuation of provisions in the Peru “Free Trade” Agreement that would allow Citibank or other U.S. investors providing “private retirement accounts” to sue Peruvian taxpayers if Peru tries to reverse its failed Social Security privatization.
We elected a new Congress last November and expected there to be a big change in America’s trade policy.
Go to Public Citizen to take action.