On Saturday October 27th, John Edwards became the first major Presidential contender to call for more than adding labor and environmental standards to trade texts to make them fair.
Edwards called for deeper revisions to future trade agreements, including the elimination of anti-democratic provisions. Specifically, Edwards trade deals should not “establish expansive investor rights that actually create incentives to further relocate U.S. jobs overseas, by compensating corporations if our environmental, health or even local zoning laws allegedly undermine their expected profits.” He added that these provisions also “unfairly allow foreign corporations to challenge many of our laws.”
For more further text on Senator Edwards’ statement, and his remarks in announcing it, follow here:
Excerpts of Official Statement (Full Text Available at Candidate’s Website):
“Presidents from both parties have entered into trade agreements like NAFTA and the WTO promising that they would create new jobs, but instead we have lost millions of manufacturing jobs, seen wages stagnate, and run up larger and larger trade deficits. Meanwhile, Washington insiders have looked at every trade deal and asked one, and only one, question: is it good for corporate profits?”
“NAFTA was written by corporate interests and insiders in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, but workers have lost out, both American and Mexican. Under NAFTA, the U.S. has lost more than 1 million jobs, while average wages for Mexican manufacturing workers have fallen by 12 percent.
“• Congress should not pass further trade deals without first taking steps to address the stagnant wages and insecurity caused by globalization. Congress needs to adopt universal health care, reform the tax code, strengthen unions, and expand and renew trade adjustment assistance.
• The four trade deals which have been proposed establish expansive investor rights that actually create incentives to further relocate U.S. jobs overseas, by compensating corporations if our environmental, health or even local zoning laws allegedly undermine their expected profits. They also unfairly allow foreign corporations to challenge many of our laws.
• The proposed deals even limit how we can spend our own tax dollars by banning many Buy America policies.
CALLING FOR SMART TRADE POLICIES
John Edwards believes we need smarter trade policies that lift up American workers. He has proposed four principles to ensure that globalization works for everyone:
• Our trade deals and preferences must benefit American workers and communities, not just corporate bottom lines. This means that they must include strong labor and environmental standards and clearly prohibit illegal subsidies and currency manipulation.
• Our trade policies must lift up workers around the world. Making sure that all workers share in the gains from trade is the right thing to do economically, and it will make America safer and more secure.
• We must understand that “one size does not fit all” in trade agreements. Instead, we need to address differences in form of government, rule of law, state of economic development, and the day-to-day trade and business practices of our trading partners.
• Our trade deals must be fully and fairly enforced. Edwards will make top prosecutors at the Department of Justice responsible for enforcing trade agreements.
