The Bush Trade Agenda: Bad for Oregon, Bad for the World

Despite promises to increase prosperity, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and similar trade pacts have been extremely harmful for the majority of Oregonians and people around the world.  These free trade policies have led to:

• The export of millions of high-paying U.S. jobs

• Declining living standards for the U.S. middle class

• Increased poverty in developing nations

• The weakening of key environmental and food safety laws

Now, the Bush administration is trying to expand the NAFTA model of trade to four new countries: Peru, Colombia, Panama and South Korea.  This is the biggest expansion of NAFTA in over a decade. These new trade deals would be harmful to Oregonians and devastating for millions of poor people abroad.

  The Impact on Oregon

• 68,000 Oregonians have lost jobs due to offshoring and increased foreign imports since NAFTA, according to an analysis of U.S. Labor Department data conducted by the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign in late 2006.

• The U.S. trade deficit with China has more than tripled since China entered the WTO in 2001.  A May 2007 study by the Economic Policy Institute finds that Oregon has lost a net 25,700 jobs due to this trade imbalance.

• A September 2006 study by the Economic Policy Institute finds that Oregon has lost 2.16 jobs due to imports for every one created due to exports as a result of NAFTA.  The study also found that jobs lost paid higher wages on average than the jobs that were created.

• According to a think tank run by former Bush administration Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, “the pressures of global engagement spread economy-wide to alter the earnings of even those not directly exposed to international competition.”

• All but the top 5th of Oregon households have seen their average incomes remain stagnant or decline between 1979 and 2004.

 The Impact on Developing Nations

• Free trade agreements require developing countries to reduce tariffs and other protections for their domestic agricultural products.  This results in a flood of food imports from the United States. 

• Because the production of staple foods in the United States is heavily subsidized by U.S. taxpayers, these crops are actually sold for less than the cost of production, making it impossible for poor farmers in developing nations who receive no subsidies to compete. 

• While this system benefits large, transnational agribusinesses, it pushes small-scale farmers in developing nations off their land. 

• Between 1.2 million and 3 million small-scale Mexican farmers were forced out of work by NAFTA. 

• The pending Free Trade Agreements with Peru, Colombia, Panama and South Korea are expected to have a similar impact on peasant farmers—worsening problems with drug production, urban poverty and undocumented immigration. 

 
TAKE ACTION:

It’s not too late to stop the Bush administration’s mission of expanding NAFTA to South America and Asia—but only if we can get our Members of Congress to vote NO!  Please call your Members of Congress and urge them to vote NO on the Peru Free Trade Agreement and the Bush administration’s entire trade agenda.

Call Today!

Rep. Wu: 503-326-2901
Rep. Walden: 541-776-4646
Rep. Blumenauer: 503-231-2300
Rep. DeFazio: 541-465-6732
Rep. Hooley: 503-588-9100
Sen. Wyden: 503-326-7525
Sen. Smith: 503-326-3386
 
The Peru Free Trade Agreement will be voted on by Congress this month.  Please call today!

The Bush Administration’s Trade Deals Are Opposed Around the World


PERU:      In July, four million of Peru’s peasant farmers conducted a 48-hour strike to protest the pending Peru Free Trade Agreement.  “We oppose the government’s policy of continuing to shower privileges on private investors while turning its back on campesinos,” said Antolin Huascar of the National Agrarian Confederation.  Peruvian unions are also fighting this tooth and nail.

COLOMBIA:      Colombia is the deadliest country in the world for trade unionists, with hundreds of labor and human rights activists killed just since negotiations on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement began.  In April, Colombian unions and NGOs representing millions of Colombian workers, peasants and indigenous peoples sent a joint letter to U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi “call[ing] upon the Democratic Party to unequivocally reject the FTA between Colombia and the United States.”

PANAMA:    In January 2006, Panamanian Agricultural Minister Laurentino Cortizo resigned his post to protest the negative impacts the proposed Panama Free Trade Agreement would have on Panamanian farmers and domestic food safety regulations.  Panamanian farmers and unions have actively opposed the deal.

KOREA:    According to a public opinion poll taken in late March, 83 percent of the South Korean public opposed the Roh administration concluding trade negotiations with the United States.  In South Korea, the proposed Korea Free Trade Agreement has been met with large-scale street demonstrations, hunger strikes and even self-immolation (ritual suicide).  In late 2006, the Korean government banned public demonstrations opposing the FTA; set up roadblocks to prevent potential protestors’ freedom of travel and assembly; barred television ads critical of the FTA; raided the offices of civic groups; and detained the leaders of 19 separate farmers’ and workers’ rights organizations. 

U.S.A.:    Not a single labor, environmental, human rights or family farm organization has endorsed the Bush administration’s proposed Free Trade Agreements with Peru, Colombia, Panama and South Korea.  Many are actively opposing them. 

A word on new labor and environmental standards:

The Bush administration recently added new labor and environmental language to the pending FTAs. While better than what was previously offered, the new labor standards are weakly written. More to the point, these provisions are all dependent upon the Executive Branch for enforcement. Given the administration’s consistent record of undermining domestic labor and environmental protections, it is unlikely these new provisions would be adequately enforced any time soon.

Likewise, nothing has been done to correct problematic FTA obligations regarding agriculture, public procurement, food safety, access to medicines and extrajudicial investor-to-state legal challenges.   

For more info, call Portland Jobs with Justice at (503) 236-5573, the Portland Central America Solidarity
Committee at (503) 236-7916 or the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign at (503) 736-9777.