Big Trade Memo

[MDOLAN <mdolan@citizen.org>]

  This is the digital version ("ASCII text") of a Field Memo that was 
  dispatched by snail mail ("hard copy") to trade activists and organizers 
  throughout the country on 7/18-19.
  
  Enjoy & Organize,
  
  Mike Dolan
  Field Department
  Global Trade Watch
  Public Citizen
  
   
  Memo
  
  
  To:
  Trade Activists and Organizers
  
  
  From:
  Mike Dolan and Lori Wallach
  
  
  Subject:
  Ten Weeks to Win on Fast Track?
  
  
  Date:
  July 19, 1997
  
  
   I.  Introduction
  
       The summer months are full upon us here in steaming DC, and we wish we were in the field,
  organizing district office meetings (with you and your grassroots allies) for the otherwise lazy days of the
  August Recess, which begins in a scant two weeks. More about that infra, as they say here in DC.
  
       Now that the perennial China MFN debate is behind us once again, we can look forward to a
    battle royal in the House, raging by September,on a vote the President can't veto -- a vote that will
    determine the direction of U.S. trade policy for many years to come and whether we have any role in
    its development.  Of course we are referring to that legislative laxative that's bad for the constitution --
    the so-called "fast track" trade negotiating authority, whereby the Congress abdicates to the Executive
    its prerogative to thoroughly review or fix bad trade deals.
    
       If you care about NAFTA, APEC, MAI or trade policy in general, this is THE opportunity in this
    Congress.  It is also our best chance ever to win a big trade vote.  We must pull out all the stops.
    
    II.     Beating Fast Track
            
       A.   Legislative and Political Situation.
    
            We would have already seen a "fast track" bill marked up in the Trade Subcommittee of
    Ways and Means (Phil Crane, Proprietor) if the President and "free trade" lobby thought they had enough
    votes to get one through.  But they don't -- they need to persuade a profoundly skeptical American Public
    and unconvinced U.S. Congress that the Administration's trade policy has succeeded, so that they deserve
    new, broad authority to extend it throughout this hemisphere, and tomorrow the world.
    
            The problem for proponents of NAFTA expansion is that most of the Republicans among
    them won't support a "fast track" bill that contains core labor and environmental standards in the fabric of the
    negotiating grant (meaning in the text of all trade deals negotiated pursuant thereto) and some of the
    Democrats among them won't support a "fast track" that does not include those provisions.  
    
            Clinton's challenge -- he wants new trade negotiating authority so bad he can taste it -- is to
    round up members of his party (Democrat, last time we checked) to go along with the Wall Street wing of
    the GOP and vote for a bill that doesn't reflect progressive values, one that might even forbid consideration of
    environmental and labor issues.  Clinton is likely to promise (to Democrats) to raise those issues in multilateral
    trade negotiations under the fast track grant.  He may very well phone up some of the remaining undecided
    Democrats and say to them, "Trust me: I will open up new markets for U.S. products and also demand that
    labor rights are observed and environmental laws are enforced.  I need your vote so America can stay
    competitive as we cross the bridge into .... blah blah blah."
    
            The USTR is already setting up a "war room" at the White House, just like during the original
    NAFTA debate.  According to The Washington Post, recording industry lobbyist Jay Berman and a "senior
    official" in Erskine Bowles (WH Chief of Staff) shop will coordinate "war room" operations together.
    And we figure the White House will spin Clinton as the "comeback kid" again as we get closer to a close
    floor vote on "fast track."  Most of all, we expect the Administration to argue that "fast track" has little to
    nothing to do with NAFTA itself.  They will probably run away from the facts of NAFTA's failures (as it is, they
    are in deep denial) and insist that other trade initiatives are in the hopper, as it were, and that American
    leadership is at stake.
    
            That's the theme, by the way, of the Big Bizness Lobby public relations effort this go round:
    American Leadership.  Many of you will remember USA*NAFTA! -- the corporate cheerleading squad and
    front group for the U.S. Business Roundtable during the NAFTA debate.  Well, those same transnational
    corporations have put together a new entity, with a catchy name, through which to funnel profits into a pricey
    public relations campaign.  It's called America Leads On Trade (A LOT! -- great, right?) and it will be nothing
    more or less than an extravagant "astroturf" campaign (fake field, ersatz grassroots, the Wexler Group),
    supported by expensive broadcast media  air cover.'   Companies like Allied Signal and General Electric will
    take a tiny piece of their windfall NAFTA profits and spend it bombarding the public and Congress with pro-"fast track" propaganda.
    
            Our challenge, to which this memo and the various attachments are dedicated, is to beat the
    Big Bizness PR campaign with convincing arguments (based on the hard data which is on our side) about
    NAFTA's failures and with targeted and energetic grassroots strategies.  The fundamental political reality about
    this debate  -- over a fast track floor vote and the long term direction of our trade policy -- is that it is ours to
    lose.  If all the institutional players in this town (CTC lobbyists and the like) enjoy the support of activists in the
    congressional districts of members who are wavering, then together we will make a little bit of history this fall.
    
    
       B.   Some Arguments to Raise in a District Office Meeting
            (or on the Phone or in a Letter)
            
            There are two strong lines of argument against "fast track."  The first is substantive -- the
    whole point of this request for negotiating authority is to expand NAFTA (to Central and South America and
    then to Asia via APEC) and to speed the MAI past Congress.   Yet we know, and the public is generally
    aware of, the miserable record of NAFTA in living up to the 1993 promises of the free trade lobby.  The
    second line is more procedural in the sense that it focuses on the way "fast track" works, subverting the
    democratic process and thus inevitably leading to trade disasters like NAFTA and the WTO that would not
    survive a real debate and vote.
    
       SUBSTANTIVELY, NAFTA has been a FAILURE at every level of detail.  And NAFTA expansion (starting
    with the controversial Chilean accession) is why the Administration is asking for a fresh grant of "fast track" trade
    negotiating authority.  This is what they say, not us.  You and your grassroots allies must review the failures of
    NAFTA with your congressional delegation:
    
            PUBLIC HEALTH & SAFETY: Because of NAFTA's provisions lessening border inspection and
    the new flood of imports, contaminated food and illegal drugs are pouring across our southern border in unsafe,
    uninspected trucks.  This NAFTA flood of imports and trucks is overwhelming inspectors and endangering
    motorists and communities and exposing  children to food that is making them ill.  Since NAFTA, fresh and frozen
    fruit and vegetable imports from Mexico are up 45.2% and 31.4% respectively.  The U.S. government admits that
    less than 1% of this is inspected.  Microbial food contamination--such as the recent Hepatitis outbreak from
    strawberries grown in Mexico -- are up since NAFTA.  Additionally, FDA data shows foods like strawberries and
    lettuce from Mexico have high pesticide violation rates. Bottom line: you may be eating contaminated produce,
    unless you are a careful produce consumer and avoid consuming the 99% of imports that are not being inspected. 
    Fewer than one percent of trucks are inspected crossing from Mexico to the U.S.  And almost half (45%) of those
    are taken out of service for major safety violations!  What about the failing [50% of the ~199] trucks not checked?! 
    These new NAFTA threats wouldn't be acceptable even if NAFTA was an economic success, which it clearly is
    not!
    
            JOBS: As revealed in our report, "NAFTA's Broken Promises -- The Failure to Create U.S.
    Jobs," nearly 90% of the specific corporate promises to create jobs, through NAFTA, have been broken. 
    Meanwhile, U.S. real wages (a/k/a our  standard of living') continue to drop under NAFTA as U.S. workers are
    forced to compete with $5/day Mexican wages. The Department of Labor has certified more than 130,000
    workers, under one narrow program, who have lost their jobs because of production shifts to, or increased
    imports from, Mexico and Canada.  Moreover, our unprecedented trade deficit with our NAFTA partners ($39
    Billion last year), demonstrates that the DoL number is the tip of the job loss iceberg.  Job loss estimates vary in
    the range of half a million.  Reasonable minds cannot disagree that NAFTA has been a job loser for the U.S. 
    Even NAFTA's former boosters now argue it's a wash on jobs.
    
            At the recent press conference promoting the Clinton NAFTA report, press flacks passed out
    NAFTA "success stories," including Allied Signal --  even though the firm laid off more than 1,100 workers due to
    NAFTA (according to the Dept. Of Labor) and they cannot point to a single new NAFTA-created job.
    
            LATINO & AFRICAN-AMERICAN FAMILIES: A very recently released report (7/16) reveals the
    special burdens that NAFTA places on minority, especially Latino, communities in this country.  As Paul Blustein of
    The Washington Post, who isn't exactly sympathetic described this politically-charged moment in the "free trade"
    debate:
    
       "In a blow to President Clinton's trade agenda, a group of mostly     Hispanic members of Congress plan to publicly warn today that they    cannot support extending the North American Free Trade Agreement to   other Latin American countries  . .. The group, led by Rep. Esteban Edward Torres (D-Calif.), includes 14 lawmakers, 13 of them Hispanic,
       some of whom voted for NAFTA and others who voted against. The        members plan to release a letter to Clinton and a study showing that  NAFTA's burdens have fallen disproportionately on Latino and other    minority workers.
    [Emphasis added; towards the end of the article, Blustein meets a "staffer":]
                                     The stance by the Hispanic lawmakers is a setback for the             administration's hopes to win "fast track" authority from
    Congress     this fall.  "This would be a turnaround -- and not a positive
    one,"   said a House Democratic aide active in the effort to round up
    support      for fast-track legislation.
       
            THE ENVIRONMENT: As documented in "NAFTA's Broken Promises -- The Border
    Betrayed," the unregulated expansion of North American trade has made an already polluted border region much
    dirtier and more dangerous -- the 50% gain in maquilla employment since NAFTA has pushed the border
    ecology to the breaking point.  Furthermore, the institutions created by NAFTA to handle environmental and
    public safety problems have failed in their missions.
    
            Preview of Coming Attractions: 
            Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the border ...
            The long researched and awaited sequel to The Border Betrayed
            will be released by the Global Trade Watch Research Department in September...
       
            MEXICO & CANADA: NAFTA has been no day at the beach for our neighbors to North and
    South, whether or not your Representative cares about those non[U.S.]-voters.  Mexico has been slammed the
    worst by NAFTA.  Remember: it was no coincidence that the Zapatista uprising (which resonates throughout
    Mexican politics today, as the ruling party and its NAFTA model of economics suffers electoral defeats throughout
    the country) occurred on the day that NAFTA was implemented. 
    
            THE PUBLIC IS WITH US: While an argument that depends on public opinion polls is not
    really substantive, politicians put a lot of stock in them.  Remind your congress members that Americans
    oppose expansion of the failed NAFTA model by 43% to 28% You will find in the Attachments hereto some
    interesting results of recent focus groups prepared by a professional polling firm.
    
       PROCEDURALLY, fast track will give the Administration unlimited power to please its "free trade" friends
    in business by railroading through Congress major legislation without adequate debate or any amendments, let
    alone basic democratic accountability to the people of this country.  The larger issues about our trade policy in the
    context of economic corporate globalization demand this much.  You may well ask: What's the Rush? to jam
    through more bad free trade deals -- particularly when (as the White House will not tire of telling us) the U.S.
    economy is growing, growing, growing ... and they have already inked 198 trade agreements without fast track.
    
       Remind your congressional delegation of the origin of fast track.  Nixon cooked it up to increase his power
    over Congress for the first GATT negotiations that touched on non-tariff issues.  The idea was to speed arcane
    technical trade bills of Nixon's liking past Congress.  Nowadays, given what gets discussed at so-called trade
    negotiations -- from what pesticides are allowed on your food, to your community's tax laws, to how big the
    trucks driving on your local roads can be -- fast track  is  a singularly inappropriate vehicle for consideration of such
    "trade agreements."  After all, our entire body of domestic law is up for grabs.  When you're heading in the wrong
    direction, a fast track is the last thing you need.
    
         NAFTA was an unprecedented experiment.   It failed. 
    Now it is the status-quo and we want change -- a forward looking new trade policy.
                                                      
                                    
    II.     Other Matters:
    
       A.   China MFN.  What can we say?  We got 34 -- countem' -- 34 more votes than we got last
    year.  The Religious Right put a lot of pressure on conservative members but Big Business put more (read,
    spent more money) on everybody, as expected.  As suggested above, some House members may have
    sacrificed the principled vote to the interests of the corporations -- anticipating a veto of MFN denial -- for
    "cover" (a political thing) when they deny Clinton NAFTA expansion/fast track.  During the debate last month,
    several institutional members of the Citizens Trade Campaign worked very hard to send the President a
    message that his "constructive engagement" is a flop and the American Public knows it. 
    
            Why does Congress and the Administration ignore public indignation on this issue year after
    year?  It may have something to do with the massive sums of money donated to members and parties by
    corporations seeking access to China's $1.60/day wages and military run prison labor camps. We examined
    the campaign finance contributions of the U.S.-China Business Council, which supports MFN for China, and
    found that its members gave over $14 million in PAC contributions to House members during the last
    election cycle. The group also donated over $23 million in soft money to the two major parties. 
    
    This fight's not over, not by a long shot, as you all know.  We are aware of several initiatives that are
    brewing on the Hill, currently grouped by some grassroots activists (you know who you are) under the rubric
    of a national Campaign to Kick the Peoples' Liberation Army Out of America.
    
       B.   The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI)
            Many of you are already aware of the stealth negotiations underway in Paris, France, on this
    radical new investment treaty that we refer to as "GAFTA on Steroids."  Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch,
    in collaboration with a group called the Preamble Collaborative, has undertaken a public education campaign
    to bring this corporate bill of rights to the attention of opinion leaders in every community and policy makers
    at every level of government.   We have attached some materials from our current Campaign of Inquiry for
    you to share with everybody you know.  For the narrow purposes of this urgent memorandum, there are
    two aspects of our work on this exciting new issue to emphasize:
    
            1)   MAI X FT: The Administration has made it clear that they would like to bring the MAI
    before the Congress under a grant of immunity -- we mean "fast track" -- rather than as an actual Treaty to
    be ratified by the U.S. Senate pursuant to the U.S. Constitution.  In other words, if you don't feel you have
    quite enough ammunition to fight "fast track" based on the dangers of NAFTA expansion, lock and load: the
    transnational corporate/investment community and their political puppets in USTR and Dept. of State are
    way overreaching on the MAI.  This treaty deserves the fullest possible debate.
    
            2)   Road Show! Coming soon to a forum near you! Starting in September, we and the
    nice people at Preamble will be organizing a national conference tour to shed some sunshine on the MAI. 
    Each month we'll be dispatching deep thinkers and debaters to several cities in among the Lower 48.  First
    stops include Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis.  Stay tuned...
    
       C    Global Trade Watch welcomes Senior Researcher          
                 
            Just when we thought we were running out of momentum, Robert Naiman has joined the
    Global Trade Watch Team as lead researcher. Naiman was the lead author of the state reports. Bob hales
    from Chicago, where he was a graduate student in Urban Planning and Public Policy. Bob also did graduate
    work in Economics in Urbana, Illinois, where he served as a member of the Champaign County Board. Bob
    lived for more than a year in the Middle East and has a stammering knowledge of colloquial Arabic.  We're
    really fortunate to have him on the team.  His extension is 302 and he knows a lot.
    
    
    V  Dispatch
       The duty of the organizer is to provide people with
       the opportunity to work for what they believe in."
                                -- Fred Ross, Sr.
    
       A.   New Toll Free Number for the U.S. Congress: 1-888-723-5246.  Use it!
            Spread it around.  We should jam the House phone lines while they're still in session.
    
       B.   Do these things, in roughly this order, and we will win this historic battle
            Last year, we stopped NAFTA expansion by accomplishing the following basic organizing tasks. 
            We are positioned to do it again.  So we prepared a checklist.
            This  tine, if we succeed we've put them out of business for several years.
            
            Read the attachments hereto, so you'll be more up-to-date on trade stuff than most             congresspersons and/or their staffs.
    
            Contact the schedulers in the congressional district offices of the target members of your          delegation to make appointments during the August recess or, if they dodge you, the time and             venue of the member's upcoming public events, like town-hall meetings.
    
            Contact all your coalition  partners and friends and invite them to join your meeting with their         Representatives and to generate phone calls and letters, including letters to the editor.  Be sure  to give them the new toll-free number!
    
            Meet with target members of your congressional delegation.  Fill out report forms and fax back           to me at 202-547-7392.
    
            Prepare a coalition sign-on letter and get local coalition partners to sign-on and then dispatch it           to all members of the delegation.
    
            Call in on all the local talk radio shows and get folks riled up (see sample script) and then write           an indignant Letter to the Editor (see sample one of those), if not offer a cogent op-ed to the local   daily (see sample).
    
            Follow up with everybody so as to keep the grassroots energy alive and offer succinct report to          the Citizens Trade Campaign DC HQ.
    
    
       C.   Contact Mike Dolan  at  202-546-4996 (x311) or at mdolan@citizen.org to find out who
    is undecided among your congressional delegation.  If you are "on E-mail," We encourage you to contact Mike
    @citizen because  it will be cheaper and faster to communicate during the hectic next three months.   He can
    then "forward" to you any/all of the sample documents to support your grassroots crusade.