[Antiracism] Peru NAFTA Senate Vote THIS TUES Dec 4!!!

[WMass Jobs With Justice]

-----Original Message-----
From: David Edeli [mailto:dedeli at citizen.org] 
Importance: High

Friends,
 
Despite news reports earlier this week to the contrary, we've just received
word that the Senate vote on the Peru NAFTA expansion will in fact be THIS
COMING Tuesday Dec 4th!
 
The debate will begin Monday, December 3rd, and the final vote will be
Tuesday morning.
 
If you can engage your Senators this weekend or on Monday, please do so!  
 
As with the house vote, there is a lot of misinformation going around
regarding whether labor, environmental, small farm, faith and other groups
actually support the deal (false on all counts!).  So it is critical that we
all call our Senators immediately -- and also make sure that they have in
hand the copies of our organizations letters and position papers.
 
If you do not have the # for your Senators on hand, you can call the Senate
Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected.
 
I've pasted below some of the key talking points.  Copies of key documents
can be found at HYPERLINK
"http://www.citizenstrade.org/peru.php"http://www.citizenstrade.org/peru.php
and at HYPERLINK
"http://www.citizen.org/trade/afta/"http://www.citizen.org/trade/afta/.  
 
If you have any questions about priority targets in your state or region,
please let me know.

Thanks for taking action!
 
Best,

David
 
David Edeli
Field Director
Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch 
215 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, Washington DC, 20003 USA 
HYPERLINK "mailto:dedeli at citizen.org"dedeli at citizen.org & HYPERLINK
"http://www.tradewatch.org/"www.tradewatch.org 
Ph: + 202-454-5111, Fax: + 202-547 7392 
Cell: +202-246-4943
 
++ Check out our new blog at HYPERLINK
"http://www.eyesontrade.org/"www.EyesOnTrade.Org! ++
 
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Flawed Policy of the Peru FTA:
 
We can’t afford any more NAFTA. With the highest U.S. trade deficit ever,
and more than 3 million high-paying manufacturing jobs lost during the NAFTA
era, we can't afford any more NAFTA-like trade deals. If Congress allows the
Peru or Panama FTAs, big corporations will use these deals to ship more U.S.
jobs away and push down the wages of jobs staying here. More family farmers
and small businesses will go bankrupt.
 
The labor rights fixes in the Peru FTA aren’t strong enough. Big Business
interests celebrated the “deal” to pass the Peru FTA while no labor union,
consumer, environmental or small business group supports it. Tom Donahue,
President of the Chamber noted “we are encouraged by assurances that the
labor provisions cannot be read to require compliance with ILO Conventions.”
Peru’s two major labor federations sent a letter on August 20th to the US
Congress saying that the labor fixes were not sufficient and urging a “No”
vote on the deal.  
 
The Peru FTA bans anti-offshoring and Buy America policy. How could
Democrats fighting to expand and preserve such important policies support a
trade agreement that explicitly bans them? Jobs created with government
money are some of the only U.S. jobs Congress has direct authority to
safeguard for U.S. workers in the global economy.
 
The Peru FTAs threatens federal and state prevailing wage guarantees.
Absolutely ignored is labor’s key demand to remedy the FTAs’ strict limits
on the qualifications – such as requiring companies to agree to pay
prevailing wages as a condition for qualifying to bid – governments can set
for government contracts.
 
The Peru trade deal gives corporations too much power over Social Security.
The deal could allow Citibank and other corporations to sue if Peru tried to
fix its failed social security privatization. That's unfair to the elderly
and the poor in Peru. It's hypocritical for the U.S. to include a provision
like this in a trade deal -- when the American public rejected privatization
here at home. And, its also a terrible precedent. No "free trade agreement"
should ever contain provisions that impact social security policy.
 
The Peru trade deal endangers the lungs of the planet. The upper Amazon
basin in Peru is among the most bio-diverse areas on earth - and also one of
the most at risk. Pollution and deforestation from oil production and mining
is huge problem. The investment rules in the Peru FTA could allow foreign
investors to insist that they are allowed to pillage the area for timber,
mineral and energy resources, and would chill direly needed efforts to
protect the Amazon basin.
 
The Peru trade deal will increase drug trafficking and instability. The
NAFTA-style agreements will undermine the livelihoods of small farmers
throughout the Andean region and force them into last-resort cultivation of
coca for cocaine production, leading to an increase in drug trafficking,
terrorism and violence.
 
The Peru trade agreement will tie Congress' hands when it comes to food
safety. NAFTA-style trade agreements contain provisions that would allow
food exporting companies to challenge U.S. state and federal actions to
increase inspections on imported food. In the middle of a imported food
safety crisis, this is the last thing we would want to do!
 
Flawed Politics of the Peru FTA:
 
What are Congress' Priorities Anyhow? The "Deal" Puts NAFTA Expansion Ahead
of Any Pro-Working Family Legislation. President Bush has vetoed legislation
to provide health care for poor children, promised to veto the Employee Free
Choice Act, which would support workers' rights to organize unions. By
agreeing to more-of-the-same NAFTA expansion before assuring any increase in
protections for the American middle class, members of Congress would be
making a huge political and strategic mistake.
 
By Blurring the Party Lines on Trade, the Democrats are Inviting Disaster in
2008. The country sent a clear message on Election Day in November 2006: “NO
to staying the course on Bush’s trade policy.” Freshmen Democrats must have
opportunities to show that a Democratic Congress means no more-of-the-same
harmful NAFTA-style trade policy. If the Democrats allow the passage of a
new Bush NAFTA-style deal, this will invite another Democratic wipeout as
occurred after the 1993 NAFTA vote blurred the distinction between the
parties on trade. 
 


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