Resist Job-Killing Free Trade Agreements

From the California Fair Trade Association:

After five years, two presidents, and three Congresses, the end of the fight against job-killing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Colombia, South Korea, and Panama may be here. With the trade agenda hitting the floor as early as next week, there are precious few days left to press our Members of Congress to oppose the deals. Fortunately, many targets around California will be showing up at the various Labor Day events scheduled around the state, which is a great time to talk to them about these FTAs, which cost jobs and hurt labor standards around the world!

Fortunately, we have a lot of momentum with Reps. continuing to come out in opposition to these deals, and even Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi publicly questioning their value. The best way to stop these deals is to consolidate opposition in the House Democratic Caucus, showing President Obama that his party opposes these deals. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration has let the cat out of the bag, all but admitting these deals are job killers, and every undecided Rep. needs to hear about it:

In a recent interview with the CFTC, the U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk admitted that the FTAs will cost jobs, but only the type of manufacturing jobs Americans don’t want. His comments were curious, since Obama still claims they will create jobs, and the 16% of Americans looking for full-time work would presumably love to have such jobs, orkeep the ones they have now.

As mentioned above, Pelosi, who has voted for most previous FTAs, including NAFTA, has recently said that Congress might push back against the White House support, perhaps responding to the growing percentage of her caucus opposing the deals, and public pressure. At a recent event in Oakland, she referred to them as the GOP’s jobs plan.

It’s not just Democrats though, recent polling has found Americans across party lines are fed up with these deals. 69% of Americans see FTAs as job-killers, 86% see offshoring as a main cause of our economic decline, and just 17% believe FTAs have benefited the United States. Perhaps most importantly, 71% of Americans think how candidates vote on trade deals informs their vote.

And, let’s not forget, the federal government’s own U.S. International Trade Commission has predicted an increase in our trade deficit as a result of the KORUS FTA, the most economically significant deal since NAFTA. Our trade deficit projects to exceed $600 billion this year. The Economic Policy Institute project the change will result in 159,000 lost jobs and up to 888,000 displaced.

There are countless reasons to stop these deals, but ultimately, they are bad for workers and will kill U.S. jobs. Please spend every opportunity you have this Labor Day to remind you representative of this. It may be our last chance.

In Solidarity,

Tim Robertson, Director, CFTC

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