Rally Spotlights Obama’s First Trade Negotiations

Representatives from labor, faith, environmental, fair trade, family farm and fishing groups joined elected officials in San Francisco June 14 to call on President Obama and his trade negotiators to replace the NAFTA-style approach to trade deals with the promised new American trade policy designed to create jobs and protect the environment, food safety, and human rights.

While trade negotiators from eight nations participating in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement negotiations met at the Intercontinental Hotel, the diverse coalition rallied to urge the Obama administration to use the TPP to deliver on the president’s trade reform commitments. TPP talks were initially launched by the Bush administration in 2008. Obama officials have said they will start with a clean slate in talks with the same Asian and Latin American nations. The TPP would be the largest trade pact since NAFTA. Fair trade advocates said that the TPP is a unique opportunity to remake American trade policy with a high standard that puts workers and communities around the world first, not multinational corporations. But if handled incorrectly, the TPP could wind up sending thousands more of good American jobs overseas.

“We need to ensure President Obama and his negotiation team develop a modern trade philosophy that raises standards of living around the world and doesn’t perpetuate the corporate-driven race to the bottom of the NAFTA-WTO ‘free trade’ model,” said Lori Wallach of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.

Speakers included Art Pulaski, Ex. Secretary Treasurer, California Labor Federation; Carl Pope, former Executive Director, Sierra Club; Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin; SF Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi; Anuradha Mittal, Director, Oakland Institute; George Davis, Vice President, California Farmers Union; Zeke Grader, Executive Director, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations; and Tim Robertson, Director, California Fair Trade Coalition.

See www.citizenstrade.org/cafairtrade.php for more information.