Congress– slam on the brakes before it's too late!
President Obama, who was elected on platform of overhauling our failed trade policy, has just flip-flopped on these commitments and introduced three of Bush’s NAFTA-style trade deals to Congress. At a time of 9 percent unemployment and broad public opposition to more job-killing NAFTA-style pacts, it’s a fairly shocking shift away from the president’s supposed job-creation message.
One of the deals, with Korea, is projected by the government’s own numbers to increase the U.S. trade deficit. The flawed deal will put the “jobs of the future” in computers and solar energy on the chopping block. (And unfortunately, the mainstream media has allowed the administration and corporations to get away with misrepresenting its own research, only focusing on exports while leaving out the larger import growth.) Colombia is the unionist murder capital of the world, yet the trade pact proposed by Obama with that country does not require an end to these killings. And the final pact, with notorious tax haven Panama, could actually make it more difficult for the U.S. to crack down on financial secrecy there.
Public Citizen, along with our allies in labor, environmental, family farm and faith organizations in the U.S. and in the three countries, are calling on Congress to slam on the brakes. You can call 1-800-718-1008 to be connected to your member of Congress and ask them to vote down these flawed deals too.