Date: November 6th, 2007
Situation: Public Question – Energy Policy Speech at Renewable Energy Group’s Bio-Diesel Plant – Newton, IA
Question: Unfair trade agreements give multinational corporations power to challenge US public interest policies. I’d like to know if you’ll commit to review and change past, present and future trade agreements that contain extraordinary corporate rights provisions that render the US helpless when it comes to enacting policies that support creation of good new jobs and keep other factories from closing?
Answer: “What you’re talking about is very real, but very, very complex. I think we’d agree trade has been a benefit to the economy overall and that we have to keep trading…” She said she wanted to pursue not free trade, but “smart trade”. She said that we need to close the loopholes that provide tax incentives for companies to take production offshore, and that she’s proposed a Trade Prosecutor and that we need to be tough on violators of current trade rules.
She said that her plan for new green jobs would take care of the middle class and bring them back to working for good wages again, and that she, as President would make trade work for the middle class and the American worker…
Follow-Up: But because of these corporate protections and privileges, these trade agreements are in and of themselves incentives to offshore, and they allow for multinational corporations to challenge US laws meant to support local or domestic industry. They all but ban Buy America or Buy Local initiatives and could jeopardize the sorts of supports you’re discussing for local green collar jobs, and I’d like to know how…
Answer: Senator Clinton stated she is in favor of rebuilding the American economy in the ways she had just outlined and that there could be a market-based solution to this. “I’ve long been a supporter of Country of Origin Labeling, and think consumers agree with me. Now, family farmers in New York sell a lot of apples, and they benefit from exporting their apples. When I’m at the grocery store I look at that apple before I buy and I want to be able to know I’m buying a New York apple. I don’t want an apple from China.” She went on regarding consumers’ potential role in buying American or local.
She did not state whether she would review or change corporate rights provisions in trade deals.
