The TPP: Trade Is Good When It's Fair
By James P. Hoffa, General President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters
and Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club
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Back in his first term, when President Obama proclaimed that America would join the TPP talks, we welcomed his commitment to deliver a “high-standard, 21st-century” trade agreement, with strong protections for workers and the environment. Environmentalists and labor unions alike have been eager to see a 21st-century trade pact that includes protections for working families and protections for our environment—not just the profit of transnational corporations.
Unfortunately, from what we understand about the direction of the TPP negotiations, the final deal will probably replicate the same flawed model of NAFTA, throwing workers and whole communities under the bus and letting foreign corporations take the wheel.
As the trade representatives from the United States and the 11 other countries meet in Washington this week, we wish to once again express our demands for this pact. Specifically, we expect that the final TPP text will require all 12 countries to respect the fundamental labor rights we take for granted in this country – freedoms of speech and assembly and the right to organize – and prohibit child and forced labor. Further, the TPP must ensure that all countries uphold and strengthen their domestic environmental policies and obligations under multilateral environmental agreements to protect communities and our climate. These obligations must be enforceable by trade sanctions, through rigorous dispute settlement mechanisms.
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With our jobs, our access to clean air and water and our environment at stake, we deserve a say in the way these trade rules are being written. But relatively few, mainly corporate executives and trade representatives from member nations, have access to texts of the pact, leaving the public largely in the dark.
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http://www.teamster.org/content/trade-good-when-its-fair
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