<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Congrats Deborah and the Florida coalition…<div class=""><br class=""><div class="">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; " class=""><div class="">Arthur Stamoulis</div><div class="">Citizens Trade Campaign</div><div class="">(202) 494-8826</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
</div>
<b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; font-family: Arial;" class="">For Immediate Release</span></b><br class=""><p class="MsoNormal"><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; font-family: Arial;" class="">Contact: </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; font-family: Arial;" class="">Deborah Dion, 305-213-3165, <a href="mailto:dion.deborah@gmail.com" class="">dion.deborah@gmail.com</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; font-family: Arial;" class=""><br class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center;"><b class=""><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 27.600000381469727px; font-family: Arial;" class="">City of Miami Commissioners Pass Resolution Opposing Secrecy in Trade Deals<o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center;"><i class=""><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.466665267944336px; font-family: Arial;" class="">Measure Comes Just Days before Major Trade Summit Hits Miami<o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; font-family: Arial;" class=""><br class="">Miami, Fla. — City of Miami Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution this morning calling for greater transparency in trade policymaking that affects south Florida’s economy, environment and public health. Their action comes just ten days before trade negotiators from the United States and European Union meet in Miami for their 11</span><span style="line-height: 13.800000190734863px; font-family: Arial;" class=""><font size="2" class="">th </font></span><span style="line-height: 13.800000190734863px; font-family: Arial;" class=""><font size="3" class="">round of talks on the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a companion to the just-completed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), whose text still remains secret. <o:p class=""></o:p></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; font-family: Arial;" class="">“These massive trade agreements have a very real effect on jobs, wages, the environment and public health in our communities,” said Deborah Dion, Florida State Director, Citizens Trade Campaign. “The American people deserve to know what negotiators have been proposing in our names.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; font-family: Arial;" class="">“We suspect both the Pacific and Atlantic trade deals will threaten segments of Miami’s work force with procurement provisions that force us to waive ‘Buy American’ and ‘Buy Local’ requirements, as well as other provisions that reduce risks and offer incentives to corporations that offshore U.S. jobs,” said Gayle Martin, Florida Progressive Democrats. “At the same time, both pacts are rumored to contain provisions that could subject the city’s laws and regulations on a wide variety of matters to challenge in international tribunals. These are matters we should be able to investigate and debate publicly before the ink on the deals is dry.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; font-family: Arial;" class="">Unlike European negotiators, who have been their TTIP proposal public, U.S. negotiators for both TTIP and the TPP have flatly refused to make their proposals available for public scrutiny. They have likewise blocked composite texts from being published. Meanwhile, they have granted hundreds of corporate lobbyists special “cleared advisor” status that provides them with access to negotiating texts. <o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="3" class=""><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;" class="">The</span><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;" class=""> Miami resolution calls on President Obama and Congress to </span><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;" class="">“provide</span><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;" class=""> transparency, public participation and collaboration</span><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;" class="">”</span><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;" class=""> on both the TPP and TTIP.</span></font></p><div class=""><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;" class="">“It’s shameful that Europeans can learn what their government is proposing, but Americans cannot,” said Fred Frost, Campaign Lead, CWA International Union.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;" class=""> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;" class="">“Government just works better when there’s a system of transparency, public participation and collaboration.”</span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; font-family: Arial;" class="">“The TPP negotiating process was a disaster. It provided corporate special interests preferred access to the texts throughout the negotiations, while barring the public from knowing what was being proposed during the pact’s entire formative stages,” said David Diaz, Executive Board Member, AFSCME Local 3292. “Policies that affect Floridians daily lives shouldn’t be negotiated behind closed doors. The TPP and TTIP texts should both be released immediately.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; font-family: Arial;" class="">During the upcoming TTIP negotiations in downtown Miami (October 19-23), unions, faith leaders, elected officials, consumer and environmental groups, and community activists will be holding protests, press conferences and briefings to shine a spotlight on the TTIP and other secretive trade deals. <o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; font-family: Arial;" class="">Similar resolutions have also been passed in the City of South Miami, City of Hialeah Gardens and the City of Hallandale Beach.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; font-family: Arial;" class="">###<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center;"><br class=""></p><div class=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; orphans: 2; widows: 2; border-spacing: 0px;"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div></div></span></span></div></div></body></html>