INFOALERT from Rapid Response

May 21, 2007
NEWS FROM WASHINGTON, DC ON TRADE

Recently, the House Ways and Means Committee announced that it had reached agreement with the Bush Administration on additional provisions to be added to free trade agreements the Bush Administration has negotiated with Peru and Panama. The description of the additional provisions appears to be a significant improvement since it calls for assurances of labor rights and environmental safeguards in the agreements. But the devil is in the details. No language has been released and enforcement is still in the hands of the Administration. Stay tuned.

However, regardless of how good the language might or might not be in those two agreements, nothing would change our opposition to the Columbia and Korea trade agreements. Columbia has been a killing ground for trade unionists, and it is hardly sufficient for the Columbian government to say, “Ratify the trade agreement, and we’ll try harder.” The Korean trade agreement, by the reports we’ve heard, basically sells out our U.S. manufacturing workers to gain some advantage for our agricultural industry.

Also, instead of reauthorizing Fast Track authority, which has allowed the Bush Administration to negotiate disastrous trade deals and ram them through Congress, it is time to fix the trade imbalance problem.

We should be concentrating on:

• Creating a climate to revitalize manufacturing in this country.

• Strengthening our trade laws so we can counter currency manipulation and foreign government subsidies which have been robbing American jobs.

• Improving the wholly inadequate trade Adjustment Assistance Act which has been a broken promise for displaced workers.

• Dealing with our health care system that is putting us at a competitive disadvantage in the global economy.

We need to solve the trade problem – not make it bigger!
Rapid Response will keep you updated. Be ready!

USW Rapid Response (412) 562-2291 http://www.uswrr.org