[CTC] Statement on the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP)

[Arthur Stamoulis]

https://tradejusticeedfund.org/statement-on-the-americas-partnership-for-economic-prosperity-apep/ <https://tradejusticeedfund.org/statement-on-the-americas-partnership-for-economic-prosperity-apep/> 


Statement on the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP)
For Immediate Release:
January 27, 2023
 
Contact: Arthur Stamoulis, arthur at tradejusticeedfund.org <mailto:arthur at tradejusticeedfund.org>, (202) 804-6473
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and U.S. State Department will be hosting a virtual ministerial event this afternoon launching the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP) that was announced last year by President Biden at the Summit of the Americas.  Arthur Stamoulis, executive director of the Trade Justice Education Fund, released the following statement in response:
 
“For any new trade agreement in the Americas to deliver on the administration’s laudable goals, the countries involved can start by ending the ongoing damage still being done by existing pacts in the region. One early step should include agreeing to eliminate the harmful investor-state rules that incentivize offshoring and undermine environmental progress. To help family farmers and combat people losing their livelihoods and being forced to migrate, countries should also lift restrictions on public investment in agricultural resilience and local food systems.
 
“For an APEP to benefit working people and the planet, it must include strong new labor and climate provisions.  Any new trade deal should include labor and environmental enforcement mechanisms that further improve on the facility-specific, rapid response enforcement tools that congressional Democrats, labor unions and others successfully added to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
 
“Finally, whether striking a new deal in the Americas, the Indo-Pacific, Europe or Africa, Big Tech lobbyists must not be allowed to hijack trade negotiations and insert binding rules that limit governments’ ability to address consumer privacy, data security, algorithm accountability, gig economy worker protections, anti-monopoly and other growing concerns. At a time when nations the world over are grappling with how to best rein in the abuses of Big Tech, trade pacts like APEP must not become a Trojan Horse means of undermining or blocking critical government regulation of the sector.”
 
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