[Ip-health] FW: Release: Peru won't do as model for trade

[Kaytee Riek]

> This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understan=
d
this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.
--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
The US-Peru FTA passed today, but the majority of Democrats voted against
the bill.  This is good news, because it means the other three more
controversial pending trade agreements (with Korea, Columbia, and Panama)
are unlikely to be considered by this Congress. The bill had softened
language on IP, labor, and environmental provisions, but those concessions
didn=B9t go far enough. Peru may (fortunately) be the last of Bush=B9s trad=
e
deals to be put before Congress during the rest of his term!

Kaytee
--
Kaytee Riek
Grassroots Organizer
Health GAP (Global Access Project)
and Iowans for AIDS Action
phone: 267-334-6984 or 515-779-8094
kaytee@healthgap.org
www.healthgap.org

------ Forwarded Message
From: David Edeli <dedeli@citizen.org>
Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:17:07 -0500
To: David Edeli <dedeli@citizen.org>
Subject: [Ctcfield] Release: Peru won't do as model for trade


Majority of House Democrats Stand up for Constituents, Vote No on
Peru NAFTA Expansion, Demand a New Direction on Trade

Statement of Lori M. Wallach, Director of Public Citizen's Global Trade
Watch Division

Despite intense pressure and lobbying from some Democratic leaders, a
massive corporate coalition and the White House, a majority of Democrats in
the House of Representatives today opposed Bush's Peru NAFTA expansion
agreement, echoing the American public's widespread discontent with the
status quo trade policy.

That a majority of Democrats opposed the Peru NAFTA expansion -
theoretically the least controversial of Bush's remaining trade deals - wil=
l
put the final nails in the coffins of any further Bush administration
expansions of NAFTA to Panama, Colombia or South Korea.

The opposition from 117 Democrats - including nearly three-fourths of
Democratic freshmen and a majority of the party's committee chairs- shows
that significant work remains to create a framework for trade agreements
that can earn public support nationwide and thus bipartisan support in
Congress.

Despite the fact that many more Democrats occupy House seats, the Peru "fre=
e
trade agreement" (FTA) obtained less Democratic support than the 2004
Australia FTA, the 2004 Morocco FTA, and the 2005 Bahrain FTA. The Peru FTA=
,
because it fell short of approval by the Democratic majority, has proven
itself an unacceptable framework for future trade deals.

Hopefully the next trade debate in the Congress will be about how to create
a new template for future trade agreements that will benefit the majority o=
f
Americans and thereby be able to win the support of the Democratic majority=
.

In light of the 2006 elections, when Democrats took control of Congress
after 37 freshmen successfully campaigned against the Bush trade agenda and
replaced 37 anti-fair traders, many Americans likely will wonder how
President Bush managed to eke out this rare victory and get a NAFTA
expansion agreement through the Democratic-majority Congress. That a
Democratic-majority Congress would pass a Bush trade agreement opposed by
most Democrats may be especially puzzling since the vote came a week after
Bush announced he would veto Democratic legislation to help workers who los=
e
jobs to trade, and after Bush vetoes of Democrats' priorities - children's
health insurance and anti-war legislation.

This vote reveals that many in Congress understand that what determines the
effects of a trade agreement is not mainly the economic size of the country
involved but instead the scope of the extraordinary corporate rights
established under the agreement - rights that undermine U.S. domestic and
foreign policy goals.

Trade per se was not the issue today. The Peru NAFTA expansion was opposed
by so many Democrats because it establishes new corporate rights that
promote offshoring of U.S. jobs; expose our environmental, food safety and
health laws to challenge in foreign tribunals; empower foreign corporations
to skirt Buy America and anti-off-shoring policies; provide Big Pharma with
extended patent rights that undermine affordable access to medicine; and
empower U.S. firms, such as Citibank, to demand compensation if Peru
reverses its disastrous social security privatization.

No U.S. labor, environmental, consumer, faith, family farm or development
group supported this agreement, which also is opposed by both of Peru's
labor federations, its major indigenous people's organization and its
leading archbishop.

The passage of the Peru NAFTA-expansion, which was overwhelmingly opposed i=
n
the United States and Peru, is bad foreign policy, bad domestic policy and
egregiously bad politics.

###

Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization base=
d
in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.citizen.org
<http://www.citizen.org/>  .



30 Freshmen Democrats Voting No Peru FTA
1. Arcuri (NY)
2. Altmire (PA)
3. Boyda (KS)
4. Carney (PA)
5. Cohen (TN)
6. Courtney (CT)
7. Donnelley (IN)
8. Ellison (MN)
9. Hall (NY)
10. Hare (IL)
11. Hirono (HI)
12. Hodes (NH)
13. Johnson, Hank (GA)
14. Kagen (WI)
15. Loebsack (IA)
16. McNerney (CA)
17. Murphy C. (CT)
18. Murphy P. (PA)
19. Richardson (CA)
20. Rodriguez (TX)
21. Sarbanes (MD)
22. Shea-Porter (NH)
23. Shuler (NC)
24. Space (OH)
25. Sutton (OH)
26. Tsongas (MA)
27. Walz (MN)
28. Welch (VT)
29. Wilson (OH)
30. Yarmouth (KY)
Braley (IA) missed vote, issued news release in opposition

11 Freshmen Democrats Voting Yes Peru FTA
1. Castor (FL)
2. Clarke (NY)
3. Ellsworth (IN)
4. Gillibrand (NY)
5. Hill, B. (IN)
6. Klein (FL)
7. Lampson (TX)
8. Mahoney (FL)
9. Mitchell (AZ)
10. Perlmutter (CO)
11. Sestak (PA)

Chairs:

12 House Chairs voting no: Brady, Conyers, Filner, Miller, Markey, Obey,
Peterson, Rahall, Slaughter, Spratt, Thompson, Velazquez
7 House Chairs voting yes: Dingell, Frank, Gordon, Rangel, Skelton, Waxman,
Reyes
Missing: Oberstar and Lantos, both opponents of Peru FTA


David Edeli
Field Director
Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch
215 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, Washington DC, 20003 USA
dedeli@citizen.org & www.tradewatch.org <http://www.tradewatch.org>
Ph: + 202-454-5111, Fax: + 202-547 7392
Cell: +202-246-4943

++ Check out our new blog at www.EyesOnTrade.Org
<http://www.EyesOnTrade.Org> ! ++


_______________________________________________
The Citizens Trade Campaign (CTC) is a national coalition whose members
include Americans for Democratic Action, Communications Workers of America,
Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Earth, Global Exchange, IATPAction,
International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, League of Rural
Voters, Natinoal Farmers Union, National Family Farm Coalition, Public
Citizen, UNITE-HERE, United Methodist Church General Board of Church and
Society, United Steelworkers of America, United Students Against Sweatshops=
,
and the Western Organization of Resource Councils, as well as regional,
state, and city-based coalitions, organizations, and individual activists
throughout the United States.

To unsubscribe or change to regular delivery mode:
http://www.citizenstrade.org/mailman/listinfo/ctcfield
Go to the bottom of the website, enter your email address, and then edit
your options.

------ End of Forwarded Message

--