For More Info: James Ploeser: (515) 494-4315
Lori Wallach: (202) 441-7369

*** Check Here to View Complied Candidate Statements. To receive the full candidate statements by email, contact iowafairtrade@gmail.com

Iowa Fair Trade Campaign Releases First-Ever Compilation of Candidates’ In-Depth Trade Positions Provided in Response to Campaign’s Letter of Principles

As Candidates Jack up Trade Rhetoric in Final Caucus Sprint, Coalition of Labor, Faith, Family Farm, other Iowa Groups Reveal Substance of Candidates’ Positions

Des Moines- As candidates increasingly sharpen their rhetoric on trade and offshoring in the final Caucus sprint, the Iowa Fair Trade Campaign released statements from all six Democratic candidates competing in the Iowa Democratic Caucus detailing their trade and globalization positions. These new statements, providing the most comprehensive view of the policy differences and similarities among the candidates, were provided by the campaigns in response to a letter sent by the Iowa Fair Trade Campaign and the Iowa AFL-CIO. The letter is signed by numerous Regional Labor Councils, the Iowa Farmers Union, and scores of faith, environmental, consumer and other labor and family farm groups.

“Because what the next president does on trade and globalization issues will greatly shape our nation’s future and the prospects for our families now, we thought it was critical to get past the rhetoric and generalities that had characterized most candidate’s approach to these issues,” said James Ploeser, organizer for the Iowa Fair Trade Campaign. “The detailed trade policies unveiled in these statements and in our compilation of responses by category allow prospective caucus goers to make educated decisions about the candidates based on what Iowa organizations laid out as important components for a new model for trade agreements and what constitutes ‘fair trade.’”

The 2008 Iowa Fair Trade Statement was sent to candidates with a cover letter requesting their views on the principles for an acceptable trade and globalization policy set forth by the major Iowa labor, family farm, faith and other signatory groups. The Iowa Fair Trade statement laid out principles on 5 key elements of trade and globalization policy:

• Replacing the Fast Track trade negotiating process;
• What must and must not be included in all future agreements;
• Reviewing and, as necessary, renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other existing trade agreements;
• Changing course on the current Doha Round World Trade Organization (WTO) expansion negotiations;
• Combating the trade deficit/offshoring crisis, including by addressing currency manipulation, enforcing U.S. trade laws and taking other measures.

“As well as helping voters analyze candidates actual policy positions vs. the sometimes heated rhetoric, the candidates’ responses also provide the starting point for the policy changes each has committed to implementing if he or she is elected president,” said Ploeser.

The Iowa Fair Trade Campaign statement notes that “Current corporate-dominated trade policies have failed Iowa and the nation.” It describes briefly some of the damage now being wrought on jobs, wages, family farm incomes and product and food safety by current policies.

“After 13 years, we have seen that the NAFTA model doesn’t mean more jobs, higher wages, or a cleaner environment - in Iowa, Mexico, or anywhere elsewhere,” the statement continues. “To improve the lives of workers and the poor, not just the wealthy and the powerful - here and around the world - we need an entirely new set of rules and institutions.”

The negative effects of current trade and globalization policies has proved an election priority to Iowans and recent polling shows that economic concerns have now risen above Iraq as priority. During the 2006 election, 26 congressional NAFTA-CAFTA-supporting incumbents were defeated by fair trade challengers nationwide (See http://www.citizen.org/hot_issues/issue.cfm?ID=1471). In Iowa, two GOP House seats were taken by Democratic challengers who focused their campaigns on their opponents’ support for more-of-the-same trade policies and called for a new trade model. In Iowa’s First District open seat race following the retirement of Jim Nussle, Rep. Bruce Braley beat a GOP candidate whose support for NAFTA was so vocal that the GOP labeled the race a NAFTA rematch. In Iowa District 2, Rep. Dave Loebsack beat Rep. Jim Leach a long time consistent pro NAFTA-CAFTA-WTO supporter. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll of Iowa Democrats conducted in September found that by 42% to 33% they favored a candidate who believes trade pacts hurt the U.S. economy over one who believes they benefit the economy.

“Too often global trade policy is reduced into vague soundbites about protecting American jobs and enforcing U.S. laws,” said State Senator Joe Bolkcom, (D-Iowa City), who is also staff with Working Families Win-Iowa, one of the Fair Trade Statement signatories. “These candidate responses move beyond soundbites and hopefully allow citizens to understand whether candidates are serious about changing the NAFTA model that has done so much damage to Iowa.”

*** Check Here to View Complied Candidate Statements. To receive the full candidate statements by email, contact iowafairtrade@gmail.com

Visit www.iowafairtrade.org to see the candidates’ detailed positions and read the full text of the Iowa Fair Trade Campaign statement.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday December 13th, 2007
Contact: James Ploeser 515.494.4315

Iowa Groups Call on Candidates to Reject Failed NAFTA Trade Model

Organizations Demand Candidates Specify What U.S. Trade Policy Will Look Like During their Presidency

Des Moines, Iowa – Over two dozen labor, faith, family farm and consumer groups are calling on Presidential candidates to reject the current NAFTA/WTO trade model and make public their agendas for global trade under the next administration. The groups specifically are calling for candidates to reject corporate trade deals that permit challenges to domestic food safety and environmental laws, encourage the offshoring of millions of good jobs throughout America and devastate family farm income.

The diverse groups today released the Iowa Fair Trade Statement, a comprehensive model to ensure the next generation of trade deals don’t have the devastating impact of current trade deals based on the NAFTA/WTO model.

“Sure it’s about jobs but it also about democracy and the public good”, said Mark Smith, President of the Iowa AFL-CIO. “Unfair trade laws stop us from enacting policies like ‘Buy America’, or other practices that could address the jobs issue and restrict our options in making policy in the interest of working people.”

Corporate trade agreements like NAFTA have also had a devastating impact on family farm income, which fell over 16% during the first eights years of the agreement, which has led to the loss of over 300,000 American family farms since 1993.

“NAFTA and the WTO have benefited factory farms and agribusiness at the expense of small farmers throughout Iowa. Their profits have gone sky high while normal Iowa farmers struggle and lose out”, says Chris Peterson, President of the Iowa Farmer’s Union, also a signatory. “We’ve lost tens of thousands of family farms since NAFTA while agribusiness, with their unsustainable and unhealthy practices, can use these kinds of trade rules to challenge efforts to create safe food systems and to increase inspections of unsafe imports.”

Chief among the groups’ concerns are mechanisms in current trade deals that allow companies to challenge democratically determined public interest policies if corporations feel the laws interfere with company profits. Pending cases include challenges to laws banning a cancer-causing gasoline additive and a U.S. effort to block imported beef potentially infected with mad cow disease.

As part of the Iowa Fair Trade Statement, the groups called on candidates to enact policies that:
Increase transparency and accountability in the trade negotiations process, for vigorous enforcement of current trade deals to protect American workers and manufacturers, and immediate action to balance our severely lopsided trade deficit.

“Caucus goers deserve to know where the candidates stand on this issue today,” says Jenny Mitchell, President of the Southwest Iowa Labor Council. “Its time we got past all rhetoric and the finger pointing and hear what the candidates will do today to make sure Iowans and all Americans benefit from future trade deals.”

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** Click Here Groups’ Letter: for Full Text of Letter **

Republican candidates:

Democratic candidates:

Iowa Fair Trade Statement 2008

We live in a global economy and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. But our nation faces critical choices about the rules of the global economy that make a difference to workers, family farmers, immigrants, the environment and human rights – both here in the United States and around the world. These choices will determine whether international trade and investment help only a few, or whether the benefits of trade are more equitably distributed, and whether accelerating globalization can coexist with vibrant democratic institutions, or whether it will continue to undermine them.

Current corporate-dominated trade policies have failed Iowa and the nation. Thousands of manufacturing jobs have left the state and moved offshore in the last 13 years since implementation of the 1995 World Trade Organization (WTO) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The damage extends beyond those who directly lost their jobs. As family-supporting manufacturing jobs have been replaced by lower wage service sector jobs and simultaneously high wage service sector jobs are increasingly being offshored, the wages for the majority of American workers are stagnant or eroding. This is occurring even as corporate profits have soared and productivity has grown at a healthy pace. The tax base for supporting education and other essential public services has eroded as companies have moved or downsized. U.S. income inequality has increased to levels not experienced since the Robber Baron Age.

While good jobs have been exported, a flood of unsafe imported food and other products threatens the well -being of our families. America was a net importer of food in 2005. While the volume of agriculture trade has risen, with that trade under the control of a few multinational firms, hundreds of thousands of family farms have gone under, and farm incomes and the prices paid to our farmers for their products have declined. Concentration in agriculture, resulting in part from NAFTA, WTO and other global economic policies, has polluted the state’s waterways, compromised the quality of our food supply and driven thousands of family farmers off the land.

After 13 years, we have seen that the NAFTA model doesn’t mean more jobs, higher wages, or a cleaner environment – in Iowa, Mexico, or anywhere elsewhere. To improve the lives of workers and the poor, not just the wealthy and the powerful – here and around the world – we need an entirely new set of rules and institutions.

Therefore, we urge all presidential candidates seeking support in the Iowa caucuses to:

1. Commit to strengthening Congress’s role in trade policy, by replacing the Fast Track negotiating process with a new system that includes readiness criteria to determine appropriate negotiating partners; binding obligations regarding what must and must not be in future trade agreements; the right of prior informed consent for states before they are bound to non-trade, investment, service sector and procurement rules in trade agreements; and the right for Congress to vote before agreements are signed.

2. Commit that all agreements negotiated under their presidency would meet the following criteria:

a. Trade agreements must incorporate requirements to adopt into domestic law and enforce the five basic internationally-recognized core labor rights as stated in the eight fundamental International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions dealing with freedom of association; the right to organize and bargain collectively; the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor; the effective abolition of child labor; the elimination of the worst forms of child labor; and the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. Failing to meet such standards must be subject to the same dispute resolution and enforcement mechanisms and penalties that apply to the commercial provisions of the trade agreements.

b. Trade agreements must allow nations to follow environmental, health and safety standards adopted in reliance on the precautionary principle, recognizing the legitimate rights of governments to protect public health, safety and the environment. Trade agreements must incorporate requirements to adopt into domestic law and enforce the major Multilateral Environmental Agreements, which comprise the global consensus on basic environmental protection. Failing to meet such standards must be subject to the same dispute resolution and enforcement mechanisms and penalties that apply to the commercial provisions of the trade agreements.

c. Foreign investors must not be given the right to sue governments directly under trade agreements. The investor privileges included in most trade agreements expose our domestic environmental, public health, zoning and other public interest laws to potential challenge by foreign corporations in secret tribunals. Trade agreements must not allow private investors and corporations to compel governments to pay compensation for the costs of complying with laws, regulations, or other policies to protect the public welfare.

d. Trade agreements must not limit our ability to ensure that both imported and domestic products meet our safety standards, nor should they limit the rate of border inspection of imported goods.

e. Trade agreements should not require the privatization or deregulation of essential services, including education, health care, construction, transportation, water supply and energy.

f. Procurement provisions in trade agreements must not undermine the ability of federal and state governments to use tax dollars to create and maintain good jobs, to promote economic opportunity and development, and to achieve other important social goals, including safeguarding prevailing wage, renewable energy, and recycled content.

g. Trade agreements must allow citizens in America and elsewhere to regain control of farm and food policy with the intent of creating a sustainable family farm system and a safe and healthy food supply. No trade agreement should impede the right of America, or other nations, to devise farm and food policy that establishes fair farm prices, creates a food security reserve, establishes conservation set-asides to avoid wasteful overproduction, makes loans to help farmers own their own land and adopt sustainable farming practices, and meets other social and environmental goals.

h. Trade agreements must not undermine U.S. trade laws, including the ability of governments to safeguard domestic industries against market surges and unfair foreign trade practices, such as predatory pricing, currency manipulation, and export dumping. Trade agreements should not prevent governments from regulating the flow of speculative capital.

i. Trade agreements must not impede nations’ ability to make affordable pharmaceuticals available to their residents. Provisions in international agreements (including trade agreements) concerning intellectual property rights must recognize and reaffirm that profits from pharmaceutical and biotechnology products should be shared equitably with nations providing the genetic resources upon which such biotechnology products are derived. Trade agreements should also recognize that nations may regulate genetically modified organisms to address food supply and biodiversity conservation.

3. Commit to review and assess NAFTA and other bilateral trade agreements, particularly their impact on our jobs, wages, working conditions, environment, consumer safety and democratic protections. Such a review must include recommendations on how to address problems in existing agreements, up to and including renegotiation.

4. Commit to oppose the current direction of the WTO “Doha Round” and to call for a new direction in global trade talks to prioritize protections for workers, the poor, health and the environment, and to ensure that global trade rules do not undermine the ability of governments to regulate in the public interest.

5. Commit to strengthen and effectively enforce U.S. trade laws to protect U.S. jobs and our manufacturing base.

6. Commit to implementing emergency policies to bring our trade deficit into balance, including by addressing currency manipulation, eliminating tax breaks for offshoring production, and exploring other options, such as an import surcharge.

Signed,

Archdiocese of Dubuque - Rural Life & Community Development Office

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) - Iowa

Catholic Peace Ministries

Central Iowa Building & Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO

Clinton Labor Congress, IFL, AFL-CIO

Communications Workers of America (CWA) - Iowa State Council

Dubuque Federation of Labor, IFL, AFL-CIO

Hawkeye Labor Council, IFL, AFL-CIO

Independent Cattlemen of Iowa (ICI)

Iowa Citizen Action Network - ICAN

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement - Iowa CCI

Iowa City Federation of Labor, IFL, AFL-CIO

Iowa Conference of Teamsters - IBT

Iowa Farmers Union (IAFU)

Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO - IFL

Iowa Postal Workers Union - APWU

Iowa State Council of Machinists - IAMAW

National Catholic Rural Life Conference

North Iowa Nine Labor Council, IFL, AFL-CIO

Northwest Iowa Labor Council, IFL, AFL-CIO

Southwest Iowa Labor Council, IFL, AFL-CIO

Progressive Action for the Common Good - Corporate Reform Forum

Quad Cities Federation of Labor, IFL, AFL-CIO

United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) - Iowa

United Steelworkers of America (USW) - Iowa Sub-District

Working Families Win – Iowa

Situation: Public Question - AMOS (Interfaith group) Forum - Des Moines

Question: Senator Biden, I want to follow up on your comments about immigration. Could you please comment on how NAFTA and other so-called free trade policies have contributed to undocumented immigration by destroying the economic opportunities of many people and thus driving them out of their countries as a result of their economic desperation?

Answer: According to the Register, “Senator Biden responded in part by talking about tainted toys currently shipped to the United States from China” but did not fully answer the question.

For more on this Candidate encounter, see:

www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071203/NEWS09/712030315/1001/NEWS

Situation: Public Questions at candidate event in Glenwood, IA

Question: NAFTA has failed for the US and our trading partners. It has sent family-supporting jobs offshore and fuels environmental damage. NAFTA grants extra rights to foreign investors, bans Buy-America initiatives, and limits our ability to inspect for the safety of children’s toys or the food supply. Will you commit to review and potentially renegotiate NAFTA and to remove these anti-democratic provisions?

Answer: “Yes. I support Fair Trade Completely…”

Situation: Public Question at Event in Glenwood, IA

Question: NAFTA has failed for the US and our trading partners. It has sent family-supporting jobs offshore and fuels environmental damage. NAFTA grants extra rights to foreign investors, bans Buy-America initiatives, and limits our ability to inspect for the safety of children’s toys or the food supply. Will you commit to review and potentially renegotiate NAFTA and to remove these anti-democratic provisions?

Answer: “Yes. I support Fair Trade not Free Trade…”

Situation: Town Hall in Fort Dodge, IA, at Iowa Central Community College - Public Question

Question: Bad trade deals have sent good jobs overseas. What will you do to support the American workers and restore the middle class?

Answer: Senator Obama said he would “remove tax incentives for US businesses that offshore jobs” and would instead “establish tax incentives for companies that create or keep good jobs here”. He went on to recommend that we put labor and environmental standards into all new trade deals and that we take measures to protect US consumers from lead paint in toys by establishing our inspectors in other countries before export, before entering onto US soil. He also said a new energy economy and investments in vital infrastructure would create good jobs.

Situation: Public Question - Energy Policy Speech at Renewable Energy Group’s Bio-Diesel Plant - Newton, IA

Question: Unfair trade agreements give multinational corporations power to challenge US public interest policies. I’d like to know if you’ll commit to review and change past, present and future trade agreements that contain extraordinary corporate rights provisions that render the US helpless when it comes to enacting policies that support creation of good new jobs and keep other factories from closing?

Answer: “What you’re talking about is very real, but very, very complex. I think we’d agree trade has been a benefit to the economy overall and that we have to keep trading…” She said she wanted to pursue not free trade, but “smart trade”. She said that we need to close the loopholes that provide tax incentives for companies to take production offshore, and that she’s proposed a Trade Prosecutor and that we need to be tough on violators of current trade rules.

She said that her plan for new green jobs would take care of the middle class and bring them back to working for good wages again, and that she, as President would make trade work for the middle class and the American worker…

Follow-Up: But because of these corporate protections and privileges, these trade agreements are in and of themselves incentives to offshore, and they allow for multinational corporations to challenge US laws meant to support local or domestic industry. They all but ban Buy America or Buy Local initiatives and could jeopardize the sorts of supports you’re discussing for local green collar jobs, and I’d like to know how…

Answer: Senator Clinton stated she is in favor of rebuilding the American economy in the ways she had just outlined and that there could be a market-based solution to this. “I’ve long been a supporter of Country of Origin Labeling, and think consumers agree with me. Now, family farmers in New York sell a lot of apples, and they benefit from exporting their apples. When I’m at the grocery store I look at that apple before I buy and I want to be able to know I’m buying a New York apple. I don’t want an apple from China.” She went on regarding consumers’ potential role in buying American or local.

She did not state whether she would review or change corporate righs provisions in trade deals.

Edwards called for deeper revisions to future trade agreements, including the elimination of anti-democratic provisions. Specifically, Edwards trade deals should not “establish expansive investor rights that actually create incentives to further relocate U.S. jobs overseas, by compensating corporations if our environmental, health or even local zoning laws allegedly undermine their expected profits.” He added that these provisions also “unfairly allow foreign corporations to challenge many of our laws.”

For more further text on Senator Edwards’ statement, and his remarks in announcing it, follow here: (more…)