Lucas,
The Obama administration's top trade official pushing TPP — United States Trade Representative (USTR) Ron Kirk — is leaving soon. But don't break out the champagne yet.
We need a new trade policy — not just a new USTR.
The 11-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations are in full swing with Canada and Mexico joining the next closed-door negotiations to be held in just one week. TPP-pushers plan to finish these NAFTA-on-steroids talks in early 2013.
But there's an alternative to the dangerous TPP corporatist agenda and the dire threats it poses to our most cherished goals and values. Sen. Sherrod Brown's (D-Ohio) 21st Century Trade Agreements Act would stop pacts that offshore U.S. jobs and fill our homes with unsafe imported food and products.
Earlier this fall, thousands of Public Citizen activists wrote or called their senators. But now with only weeks left in the lame duck session of Congress it's crunch time for everyone to remind their senators to co-sponsor Sen. Brown's bill.
Can you write your senators and ask them to co-sponsor Sen. Brown's 21st Century Trade Agreements Act?
While Congress and the public are locked out of TPP negotiations, 600 official U.S. corporate "trade advisors" have access, including the usual suspects — Cargill, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Big Pharma and many more.
The 21st Century Trade Agreements Act would stop rogue USTR negotiators from making back-room deals like the TPP which incentivize offshoring of investment and American jobs. It would ban imports of food that doesn't meet our safety standards. And it would open up the negotiating process to oversight so no deals are signed unless Congress says they work for us.
This short lame duck session of Congress is a crucial opportunity to get senators on the record in support of Sen. Brown's bill.
Send a letter today asking your senators to co-sponsor Sen. Brown's 21st Century Trade Agreements Act.
TPP negotiators and their corporate cronies are pushing to complete negotiations in 2013. We need to step up our game to stop the TPP from becoming an extremely dangerous NAFTA-on-steroids with the world.
Thank you for all you do,
Steve Knievel
Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch