[NYTr] Peru: NAFTA Expansion Vote Looms, Opposition Grows
 
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 21:17:28 -0500 (CDT)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Public Citizen - Sep 11, 2007
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2508

As Peru NAFTA Expansion Vote Looms, Opposition Grows

Not One Union, Consumer, Latino Civil Rights, Environmental, Family
Farm or Faith Group Supports bModifiedb Peru Free Trade Agreement

WASHINGTON, D.C. b A growing number of constituency groups key to the
Democratic base are calling on Congress to oppose a proposed free trade
agreement (FTA) that would extend the NAFTA-CAFTA model to Peru, Public
Citizen said today, as the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing on
the pact. 

bThe majority of Americans oppose more NAFTA-style trade deals based on
their experience, so itbs not surprising that unions and consumer,
environmental, faith and Latino groups oppose a Peru NAFTA expansion,b
said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizenbs Global Trade Watch
division. bWhatbs surprising is that a Democratic-majority Congress
would consider more Bush NAFTA-style pacts, especially since the
Democratsb majority was delivered by candidates who explicitly ran
against incumbentsb votes on past NAFTA-style deals.b

When some Democratic trade leaders announced in January 2007 that they
would engage the Bush administration to obtain changes to free trade
agreements with Peru, Panama, Colombia and South Korea that the Bush
administration had negotiated, unions and civil society groups listed
minimal changes necessary to avoid their opposition. Among the critical
items that needed to be removed or altered:

* Foreign investor privileges identical to those found in NAFTA and
CAFTA that create incentives for U.S. firms to move offshore and expose
basic environmental, health, zoning and other laws to attack in foreign
tribunals; 

* Bans on bBuy Americab and anti-offshoring policies, and
threats to renewable energy, recycled content and prevailing wage
procurement laws; 

* Limits on food import safety standards and
inspection rates; 

* Agriculture rules identical to those found in NAFTA
and CAFTA that are projected to increase coca production and create
rural unrest in trade partners. Under NAFTA, these rules led to
displacement of 1.3 million Mexican peasant farmers and a 60 percent
increase in immigration from Mexico to the U.S.; 

* Patent right extensions that would provide large pharmaceutical
companies new protections that would crush rights provided by the World
Trade Organization for poor nations. These rights enable the nations to
provide affordable medicines; and 

* Peru FTA terms that could subject that country to compensation claims
for reversing its Social Security privatization.

The groups also listed as necessary the addition of enforceable labor
and environmental standards and a ban on trade in mahogany. On May 10,
some Democratic leadership members and the White House agreed to add
improved environmental and labor standards to the FTAs, but they failed
to address many FTA terms that directly contradict Democratsb domestic
agenda on food safety, job-offshoring, environmental protection and
more. The FTA provisions on timber trade failed to require changes to
current Bush administration policy. 

bAdding improved labor and environmental standards to the
Bush-negotiated NAFTA expansion agreements is like putting a new roof
on a condemned building, so of course there is widespread opposition,b
said Wallach.

U.S. organizations opposing the bmodifiedb agreements include AFL-CIO
affiliated unions, the Change to Win labor federation and its
affiliates, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC),
other Latino civil and immigrant rights groups, and Oxfam. Without a
single environmental group supporting the deals, todaybs Senate Finance
Committee hearing will not have any environmental witnesses. The animal
welfare group, Humane Society of the United States, whose 2005 support
for CAFTA after obtaining  funding from United States Agency for
International Development for projects in Central Americawas the focus
of a Washington Post exposC), will testify.

Perubs labor federations and many other Peruvian civil society
organizations also have called on the U.S. Congress to oppose the
expansion of NAFTA to Peru.

bAs more Americans are thrown out of work and home and a recession
seems imminent, the last thing Congress should be considering are more
wage-depressing, job-killing NAFTA expansions,b said Todd Tucker,
research director for Public Citizenbs Global Trade Watch division. bI
canbt imagine any members of Congress wanting to face out-of-work,
foreclosed, underinsured voters next year with these harmful free trade
agreements as the one piece of trade legislation passed by both
chambers and signed into law.b

For more information about the pending Peru and Panama FTAs, visit
http://www.tradewatch.org.

 
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