[NYTr] Pub Citizen: Fall Showdown on NAFTA Expansion Starts Now

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Global Trade Watch (Public Citizen) - Sep 10, 2007
http://action.citizen.org

Alert: Fall Showdown on NAFTA Expansion Starts Now


Global Trade Watch
September 10, 2007

for the full-graphics version of this e-mail, please see:
http://action.citizen.org/content.jsp?content_KEY=3185&t=BlankTemplate.dwt

In Brief: President Bush and Corporate America are demanding Congress
pass four new NAFTA expansion deals! Take action today to stop unfair
trade deals! http://action.citizen.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12561


With the presidential primary season kicking into high gear, both
Democrats and Republicans are increasingly nervous about taking
unpopular positions.

And what could be more unpopular than supporting NAFTA expansion deals
that will offshore more good U.S. jobs, trash the environment, jack up
medicine prices, threaten food safety and impoverish millions of small
farmers in Latin America - driving new waves of desperate immigration?

But politicians in both parties also are eager to hoover up donations
from multinational corporations and the other special interests who
benefit at our expense from NAFTA style deals. So the Senate Finance
Committee has quietly decided to test the waters on NAFTA expansion by
holding a hearing tomorrow to kick off the process towards passing the
Peru NAFTA expansion - formally called the U.S.-Peru Free Trade
Agreement (FTA).

We need your help to make sure the water is too hot. Go here to take
action! http://action.citizen.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12561

All four of the pending NAFTA expansions to Peru, Panama, Colombia and
South Korea were sunk - thanks to your activism - until a backroom deal
on May 10th by some Democratic trade leaders. The deal added improved
labor standards to the Bush-negotiated NAFTA expansions. Yet, the deal
did not remove any of the core NAFTA provisions that are the main cause
of job loss and wage drops here, cause the displacement of small
farmers in our trade partner countries, and empower foreign investors
to attack our basic health and environmental laws in foreign tribunals.

Outrageously, in the midst of the imported food safety crisis,
NAFTA-expansions like those to Peru and Panama will worsen imported
food and product safety problems. Read our report and find out what you
can do to protect yourself: http://www.citizen.org/trade/food/

And, unbelievably, the U.S.-Peru FTA would lock in Social Security
privatization in Peru, even as Democratic presidential candidates
compete to see who can make stronger promises to protect against
privatization here at home. Read more here:
http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7528

Not surprisingly, not a single union in the U.S. supports the deal or
the resulting NAFTA expansions. Also opposing is Oxfam and an array of
environmental, faith, consumer and family farm groups. And he two major
labor federations in Peru have just sent a letter to Democrats in the
U.S. Congress, urging them to reject the agreement. You can read their
letter in English and Spanish. 

English PDF:
http://www.citizen.org/documents/PeruvianLaborLetter-082007.pdf 

Spanish PDF:
http://www.citizen.org/documents/PeruvianLaborLetter-082007-espanol.pdf

In their own letter to Congress, prominent U.S. Latino groups have
called on Congress to stop Bush's NAFTA expansion - expressing concerns
that the U.S.-Peru FTA will reduce rural incomes in Peru and increase
the pressure on impoverished Peruvians to migrate -- legally or
illegally -- to the United States. 

Letter PDF:
http://www.citizen.org/documents/LULACNALACCLetter_FINAL_062707.pdf

What an outrage!

Bush administration officials are hoping that if the U.S-Peru deal can
be passed quietly, then they will be able to shove NAFTA expansion with
Panama, Colombia and South Korea through Congress ? all before voters
really start paying attention. So, we need you to act now ? making it
clear to Congress that we are on to this scam. This is the only way to
stop Congress from heading down this slippery slope.

Can you take a moment today to contact your Representative and Senators
and tell them loud and clear that you oppose the U.S-Peru FTA and any
more NAFTAs? Go here to take action:
http://action.citizen.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12561

Thank you for your help in the fight for fair trade!

Yours,

Global Trade Watch

p.s. For more information and key documents on the Peru, Panama, and
Colombia NAFTA expansion deals, click here:
http://www.citizen.org/trade/afta/