[CTC] NAFTA statements (round 5)

Fri Dec 13 08:14:50 PST 2019

IFPTE, UE and NETWORK letters and statements below

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

IFPTE is sending this message regarding USMCA to Congressional offices.

December 13, 2019 
Dear Representative: 

On behalf of the 90,000 members of the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers (IFPTE), we are writing regarding the recently agreed to United States-Mexico-Canada trade Agreement (USMCA). 

IFPTE does recognize that there are improvements incorporated in the USMCA compromise deal compared to the 2017 version. For example, the labor movement and House Democratic negotiators worked with the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to establish a rapid response enforcement  mechanism, strengthen labor and environmental enforcement mechanisms, eliminate panel blocking, and remove some egregious protections for multi-national corporations, including doing away with the provisions that would have limited access to medicines. Indeed, these are enhancements compared to NAFTA and the original version of the USMCA. 

However, IFPTE remains concerned that this agreement, overall, will have limited positive impact for working people in the United States, Canada and Mexico, while not going far enough to reverse the movement of jobs and manufacturing from the United States and Canada to Mexico and elsewhere. In our view, the final USMCA agreement represents a missed opportunity to shift the paradigm from the market-fundamentalist, pro-corporate NAFTA approach to trade and globalization to a trade model that shares gains from globalization with workers families and communities. 

IFPTE continues to believe that our approach to globalization should be based on three basic principles. First, the purpose of an economy is to raise living standards and improve well-being for its citizens. Second, every country has legitimate national interests, and it is the appropriate role of public policy to pursue those national interests in ways that do not unfairly burden people in other countries. Lastly, our trade policy should prioritize public interest, rather than allowing powerful private interests to guide trade policy. While the USMCA contains some improvements over NAFTA, the recent deal provides only incremental change to a failed policy. It continues to fall short in terms of our three principles. 

It is clear that NAFTA, and other agreements modeled after it, have diminished the role of government, put business and investor interests first, and blurred our national identity by merging our economy into the global economy. IFPTE remains dubious that the USMCA will result in a positive change to this standard. 

Sincerely, 

Paul Shearon, 		Matthew Biggs, 
President 			Secretary-Treasurer/ 
					Legislative Director 

======

We’re still waiting for a trade deal that benefits working people

DECEMBER 13, 2019
Pittsburgh
UE's officers released the following statement on the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) this morning.

The proposed replacement of NAFTA, now known as the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), remains a tool for corporate interests and provides insufficient relief to address the problems for working people embedded in the original agreement. At their core, these trade agreements serve to guarantee corporate investments in foreign countries and stop elected governments from passing measures that might impact corporate profitability while offering no real guarantees to workers in exchange.

The USMCA will still allow corporations to move their work to the locations with the lowest standards for workers and the environment while limiting the abilities of democratically-elected governments to uphold the interests of working people. Unless we demand that the rights of workers to organize and live in dignity are upheld everywhere, American workers will see no relief from their fears of jobs moving overseas or to lower-wage communities in their own country.

While guaranteeing protections for corporations, the USMCA does not guarantee to workers job security, living wages, good benefits, decent public services, a healthy environment in which to raise their families, or the ability to form a union without employer interference.

Pressure from working people, environmentalists, family farmers and others on the USMCA renegotiations over the past year did win small but significant victories — labor provisions were improved and a section that would have allowed pharmaceutical corporations to further expand their profits from life-saving medications was scrapped. But the real way forward can only be won through mobilization from below, combined with the kind of visionary thinking about what’s possible in trade agreements contained in the report “Beyond NAFTA 2.0: Toward a Progressive Trade Agenda for People and Planet.” <http://www.rosalux-nyc.org/wp-content/files_mf/beyondnaftaenglishfinaljuly17.pdf>
UE urges Congress to vote “No” on USMCA and instead pursue a new model of trade and economics that will benefit working people and the planet, starting with our own working, living and environmental standards. Congress should pass the Raise the Wage Act <https://www.ueunion.org/political-action/2019/raise-the-wage-time-to-demand-mcconnell-allow-senate-vote> to put more money in workers’ pockets, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act <https://www.ueunion.org/political-action/2019/pro-act-public-service-freedom-to-negotiate> to expand the union rights of workers, the Medicare for All Act <https://www.ueunion.org/political-action/2019/bernie-sanders-medicare-for-all-single-payer-healthcare> to guarantee quality healthcare to all, and the Green New Deal <https://www.ueunion.org/political-action/2019/green-new-deal-and-union-jobs> to put our country to work ending the climate crisis. As we pursue justice for working people in the U.S., we can negotiate trade agreements that guarantee those same rights to workers throughout North America and the world.

Carl Rosen
General President

Andrew Dinkelaker
Secretary-Treasurer

Gene Elk
Director of Organization

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