Lucas,
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Break our hearts -- the unthinkable happened: President Obama took ownership of Bush's 2007 NAFTA-style trade agreement with Korea. It's projected to cost 159,000 U.S. jobs and increase the trade deficit. Now we have to make sure Congress votes down the flawed Korea trade deal and forces Obama to come back with a different deal that implements his commitments for a new American trade policy.
Click here to take action now!
On Friday, the Obama administration announced the conclusion of "supplemental" negotiations with Korea that did not fix any of the most damaging NAFTA terms. Unions, Democratic members of Congress, consumer and environmental groups had identified a short list of essential de-NAFTA-ization changes. This included getting rid of:
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the NAFTA-style foreign investor offshoring privileges,
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new rights for the nearly 300 establishments of Korean corporations operating here to attack U.S. laws in foreign tribunals to demand cash compensation from our tax dollars,
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financial deregulation requirements, and
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the explicit ban on reference to the International Labor Organization Conventions -- which establish the internationally recognized labor standards -- in the, um, enforcement of the FTA's "labor rights" chapter.
Not one comma of these outrageous Bush Korea FTA provisions was altered. This deal does not go into effect unless Congress OKs it. We must stop it -- and we can.
What did they do? They agreed that if Korea wants to buy more U.S. cars, up to 75,000 of them can be sold from here without having to meet Korean safety standards. They agreed that U.S. autos sold in Korea do not have to meet fuel economy and emissions standards. They delayed the cutting of U.S. auto tariffs.
None of this alters the finding of the U.S. International Trade Commission that the pact would increase the overall U.S. trade deficit. Moreover, the Economic Policy Institute predicts that the net job effect will be a loss of 159,000 jobs.
We need to make sure that our elected representatives in Congress side with Main Street and reject this unfair trade agreement that is being celebrated by Wall Street titans, agribusiness, and chronic-offshoring multinational corporations.
Step 1 is to urge your church, synagogue, union, student group, environmental organization or other civic institution to make an official statement calling on Congress to oppose the job-killing Korea trade deal. Click here to see what groups like Public Citizen, the AFL-CIO, Steelworkers, Machinists, Sierra Club, CWA and others have already said about this NAFTA-style deal.
Step 2 is to share the statement that your organization approves. Email it to us at blopez@citizen.org and we'll make sure that every member of Congress gets a copy first thing after they are sworn in January 5.
Thank you for all you do,
Beatriz Lopez and James Ploeser
Senior Field Organizers, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch