[Sustain] [FAIRTRADE] No More NAFTAs - July 4th Patriotism in Practice

Mon Jul 2 13:37:20 PDT 2007

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<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=373879932&url_num=2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tradewatch.org%2F>

*Action Alert --- July 2, 2007*

*Fast Track is Dead: But We Can't Rest in Peace Just Yet*
/Bush Launches Final NAFTA Expansion Push Before Negotiating Authority 
Expires/

*This Independence Day*, put your patriotism into practice by 
"bird-dogging" your congressional representatives to make sure they 
oppose further NAFTA expansion.
*Take action!* 
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=373879932&url_num=3&url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.citizen.org%2Fcampaign.jsp%3Fcampaign_KEY%3D3307>

First off, here is the good news. After five years of endless NAFTA 
expansion deals enabled by "Fast Track" negotiating authority, George 
Bush's blank check trade authority terminated June 30. And, Speaker 
Pelosi and other Democratic leaders announced they have no intentions to 
give Bush more Fast Track. Hallelujah!

Okay. Now sober up for the not-so-good news.

Right before Fast Track expired, the administration released the final 
legal texts of four proposed NAFTA expansion pacts with Peru, Panama, 
Colombia and South Korea. This means they will try to use Fast Track's 
undemocratic procedures to try to ram these left-over, bad-news trade 
deals through Congress.

So, we need to kick it up a notch.

This week is the *Independence Day District Work Period*, and your 
representatives in Congress will be back in your neighborhood attending 
July 4th parades and BBQs. It will be the perfect opportunity to 
"bird-dog": that is, track down your representative and senators and 
make sure they oppose those left over NAFTA expansions - and Fast Track.

For tips on how to bird-dog effectively, to share news of any upcoming 
events, or to report on an encounter with a congressperson, click here: 
*http://www.tradewatch.org/birddog* 
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=373879932&url_num=4&url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.citizen.org%2Fcampaign.jsp%3Fcampaign_KEY%3D3307>

<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=373879932&url_num=5&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tradewatch.org%2Fbirddog> 

*What is bird-dogging?*

/bird-dog (bûrddôg)/ v.intr. To follow a subject of interest, such as a 
person or trend, with persistent attention.

One of the most important things that you can do for fair trade is to 
"bird-dog" your congressional representatives - which means following 
them around until they publicly addresses your concerns "on the record." 
The best way to do this is to attend a townhall meeting, a parade, a BBQ 
or some other public event where your representative and senators will 
be talking or participating.

Get started now! For tips and talking points, click here: 
*http://www.tradewatch.org/birddog* 
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=373879932&url_num=6&url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.citizen.org%2Fcampaign.jsp%3Fcampaign_KEY%3D3307>

*Background:* Last November, Americans loudly rejected the Bush 
administration's more-of-the-same NAFTA expansion trade policy. 
President Bush had used the undemocratic Fast Track trade negotiating 
authority to enact NAFTA-style trade deals with Chile, Singapore, 
Morocco, Australia, Bahrain, Oman, the Dominican Republic and 5 Central 
American countries (CAFTA). The majority-making Democratic freshman 
class won the 2006 elections by committing to end Bush's trade war on 
the middle class and force new rules for a fairer global economy.

You would think that a Democratic majority on Congress would mean no 
more Bush NAFTA expansions could be passed. But, shockingly, on May 
10th, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined the White House and 
congressional Democrats and Republicans in charge of trade to announce a 
"deal" to facilitate passage of several of those left-over Bush NAFTA 
expansion agreements. The announcement came without the consent - or 
even the prior knowledge - of the vast majority of congressional 
Democrats, who have been outraged at both the process and the substance 
of the "deal." Not one labor, environmental, consumer, faith, family 
farm or small business organization supports the deal.

You can read our original May 11th action alert and initial talking 
points on the deal here: 
*http://action.citizen.org/content.jsp?content_KEY=2659&t=BlankTemplate.dwt* 
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=373879932&url_num=7&url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.citizen.org%2Fcontent.jsp%3Fcontent_KEY%3D2659%26t%3DBlankTemplate.dwt>

*This "deal" was designed to facilitate passage of at least Bush's NAFTA 
expansions for Peru and Panama.* It adds enforceable labor and 
environmental standards. But unfortunately, it falls far short of 
de-NAFTA-fying those two trade agreements by removing the bans on 
anti-offshoring and Buy America policies, or the outrageous foreign 
investor rights that facilitate offshoring and attacks on our health and 
environmental laws. It's a scenario where a new roof has been added to 
building with rotten foundations, walls and wiring.

That means we face the same Peru "free trade agreement" (FTA) that would 
lock in social security privatization in Peru, chill environmental 
protections for the Amazon basin, and keep the downward pressure on 
wages here in the United States!

Bush and other Republicans - and even some Democrats - are pointing to 
the "deal" as a path towards approval of not just the Peru and Panama 
NAFTA expansions (as some reporting suggested), but also similar NAFTA 
expansions to Colombia and South Korea, and even more Fast Track trade 
negotiating authority for President Bush!

Happily, Speaker Pelosi and other Democratic House leaders have said 
they oppose the Colombia and Korea deals and have no intention of giving 
Bush new Fast Track. But... if the Peru and Panama deals are allowed to 
pass by wide margins, the other NAFTA expansions and Fast Track would be 
given a new lease on life. Every K Street lobbyist, CAFTA-15 Democrat 
and Bush administration official will take it as the sign to launch a 
huge push - which would send us right back to square one.

*Your members of Congress will be home every weekend from now through 
the end of July, and the entire month of August.* Don't let this time go 
to waste! We've made huge progress in the nearly 15 years since the 
unfortunate passage of NAFTA. We can't afford to let the newly empowered 
Democrats lose touch with the key issue that put them in office in the 
first place.

Practice real patriotism by bird-dogging your representatives and 
senators. To get started, click here: 
*http://www.tradewatch.org/birddog* 
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=373879932&url_num=8&url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.citizen.org%2Fcampaign.jsp%3Fcampaign_KEY%3D3307>

Yours in solidarity,

The Global Trade Watch Team

p.s. If you haven't signed our petition yet about the outrageous social 
security privatization provision in the proposed Peru "free trade" 
agreement, please do so now - and send it to all of your family and 
friends! You can sign the petition here: 
*http://action.citizen.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11998* 
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=373879932&url_num=9&url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.citizen.org%2Fcampaign.jsp%3Fcampaign_KEY%3D11998>

*Fast Track Obituary 
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=373879932&url_num=10&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcitizen.typepad.com%2Feyesontrade%2F2007%2F06%2Flong-overdue-fa.html%2523more>: 
June 30, 2007*
/(featured post at *Eyes On Trade* 
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=373879932&url_num=11&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eyesontrade.org%2F> 
blog)/

*Lori Wallach: Long Overdue, Fast Track Finally Passes into History; 
Millions of Those Harmed by Fast Track-Enabled Trade Deals Celebrate*

*OBITUARIES: Fast Track 1974-1995/2002-2007*

<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=373879932&url_num=12&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcitizen.typepad.com%2Feyesontrade%2F2007%2F06%2Flong-overdue-fa.html%2523more> 

After a brief, damaging existence, Fast Track was pronounced dead on 
June 30, 2007.

The demise of Fast Track allowed the U.S. Founding Fathers to stop 
rolling in their graves over Fast Track's trampling of constitutional 
checks and balances. As well, victims of Fast Track-enabled trade 
agreements welcomed the news, given the anomalous procedure's record of 
damage despite having been locked up and out of commission for blocks of 
time since its inception.

In April 1973, America first saw the faint glimmer in Father Nixon's eye 
that was to become Fast Track when the Nixon administration - always 
eager to seize power from the legislative branch - dropped the initial 
Fast Track legislation. The young Fast Track - the product of a broken 
and abusive home - had an unusually long gestation period, taking over a 
year and a half to be unleashed by President Ford, who signed the first 
Fast Track bill into law. Fast Track teethed on federalism and checks 
and balances, shredding basic tenets of our democracy.

Fast Track delegated away Congress' exclusive constitutional authority 
over trade - allowing the executive branch alone to choose trading 
partners, set the substantive terms of trade policy, and even sign trade 
agreements, all before Congress ever voted. The controversial delegation 
mechanism allowed Congress only a yes or no vote on trade agreements 
after they had been negotiated and signed and by its very design shut 
out public and congressional oversight.

Unleashed again in 1988, the troubled Fast Track became a violent adult 
with a pathological disregard for the middle class, family farmers and 
the environment. After enabling the North American Free Trade Agreement 
(NAFTA) in 1993 and the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994, Fast 
Track found itself friendless when in 1995 its 1988-granted parole ended.

In 1998, members of Congress explicitly voted to keep Fast Track locked 
away as the policy and political damage of the Fast Track-enabled NAFTA 
and WTO began to come home to roost. For only two years of the 
eight-year, 130-trade-agreement Clinton administration was Fast Track 
out and about. The facts of President Clinton being able to pass several 
controversial, major multilateral WTO agreements and the Jordan Free 
Trade Agreement and China PNTR without Fast Track does not in any way 
diminish the claim that it is impossible to do trade agreements without 
Fast Track, said Gucci Loafers, a major K Street lobbyist.

In 2002, after Fast Track had been kept locked up for a quarter of its 
27 years, another power-grabbing president, George W. Bush, struggled 
through a two-year, arm-breaking-for-votes campaign that featured a 
one-vote margin that unleashed Fast Track one last time.

Fast Track's lifelong philosophy was, "Just trust the president." Even 
after being kept in chains for much of its existence, Fast Track's 
legacy includes millions of peasant farmers who have been displaced by 
fast-tracked trade deals, workers whose wages have remained stagnant 
since Fast Track's hatching in the mid-70's, millions of Americans made 
ill by fast-tracked trade deals that required food imports not meeting 
U.S. safety standards, the evisceration of the U.S. manufacturing base, 
and much more damage. Many Americans celebrated Fast Track's long 
overdue demise and joined a national day of prayer for a better 
procedure that in the future could replace Fast Track to ensure trade 
agreements would benefit the majority.

Those deeply connected to Fast Track, including President Bush and 
representatives of the National Association of Manufacturers, the 
American Chamber of Commerce, Pharma and other corporate lobbies, 
gathered at board meetings and campaign fundraisers to mourn their loss.

*About GTW* 
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