For Immediate Release
December 28, 2007

For More Info: James Ploeser: (515) 494-4315
Lori Wallach: (202)-441-7369

*** Check Here to View Complied Candidate Statements. To receive the full candidate statements by email, contact iowafairtrade@gmail.com

Iowa Fair Trade Campaign Releases First-Ever Compilation of Candidates’ In-Depth Trade Positions Provided in Response to Campaign’s Letter of Principles

As Candidates Jack up Trade Rhetoric in Final Caucus Sprint, Coalition of Labor, Faith, Family Farm, other Iowa Groups Reveal Substance of Candidates’ Positions

Des Moines- As candidates increasingly sharpen their rhetoric on trade and offshoring in the final Caucus sprint, the Iowa Fair Trade Campaign released statements from all six Democratic candidates competing in the Iowa Democratic Caucus detailing their trade and globalization positions. These new statements, providing the most comprehensive view of the policy differences and similarities among the candidates, were provided by the campaigns in response to a letter sent by the Iowa Fair Trade Campaign and the Iowa AFL-CIO. The letter is signed by numerous Regional Labor Councils, the Iowa Farmers Union, and scores of faith, environmental, consumer and other labor and family farm groups.

“Because what the next president does on trade and globalization issues will greatly shape our nation’s future and the prospects for our families now, we thought it was critical to get past the rhetoric and generalities that had characterized most candidate’s approach to these issues,” said James Ploeser, organizer for the Iowa Fair Trade Campaign. “The detailed trade policies unveiled in these statements and in our compilation of responses by category allow prospective caucus goers to make educated decisions about the candidates based on what Iowa organizations laid out as important components for a new model for trade agreements and what constitutes ‘fair trade.’”

The 2008 Iowa Fair Trade Statement was sent to candidates with a cover letter requesting their views on the principles for an acceptable trade and globalization policy set forth by the major Iowa labor, family farm, faith and other signatory groups. The Iowa Fair Trade statement laid out principles on 5 key elements of trade and globalization policy:

• Replacing the Fast Track trade negotiating process;
• What must and must not be included in all future agreements;
• Reviewing and, as necessary, renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other existing trade agreements;
• Changing course on the current Doha Round World Trade Organization (WTO) expansion negotiations;
• Combating the trade deficit/offshoring crisis, including by addressing currency manipulation, enforcing U.S. trade laws and taking other measures.

“As well as helping voters analyze candidates actual policy positions vs. the sometimes heated rhetoric, the candidates’ responses also provide the starting point for the policy changes each has committed to implementing if he or she is elected president,” said Ploeser.

The Iowa Fair Trade Campaign statement notes that “Current corporate-dominated trade policies have failed Iowa and the nation.” It describes briefly some of the damage now being wrought on jobs, wages, family farm incomes and product and food safety by current policies.

“After 13 years, we have seen that the NAFTA model doesn’t mean more jobs, higher wages, or a cleaner environment – in Iowa, Mexico, or anywhere elsewhere,” the statement continues. “To improve the lives of workers and the poor, not just the wealthy and the powerful – here and around the world – we need an entirely new set of rules and institutions.”

The negative effects of current trade and globalization policies has proved an election priority to Iowans and recent polling shows that economic concerns have now risen above Iraq as priority. During the 2006 election, 26 congressional NAFTA-CAFTA-supporting incumbents were defeated by fair trade challengers nationwide (See http://www.citizen.org/hot_issues/issue.cfm?ID=1471). In Iowa, two GOP House seats were taken by Democratic challengers who focused their campaigns on their opponents’ support for more-of-the-same trade policies and called for a new trade model. In Iowa’s First District open seat race following the retirement of Jim Nussle, Rep. Bruce Braley beat a GOP candidate whose support for NAFTA was so vocal that the GOP labeled the race a NAFTA rematch. In Iowa District 2, Rep. Dave Loebsack beat Rep. Jim Leach a long time consistent pro NAFTA-CAFTA-WTO supporter. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll of Iowa Democrats conducted in September found that by 42% to 33% they favored a candidate who believes trade pacts hurt the U.S. economy over one who believes they benefit the economy.

“Too often global trade policy is reduced into vague soundbites about protecting American jobs and enforcing U.S. laws,” said State Senator Joe Bolkcom, (D-Iowa City), who is also staff with Working Families Win-Iowa, one of the Fair Trade Statement signatories. “These candidate responses move beyond soundbites and hopefully allow citizens to understand whether candidates are serious about changing the NAFTA model that has done so much damage to Iowa.”

*** Check Here to View Complied Candidate Statements. To receive the full candidate statements by email, contact iowafairtrade@gmail.com

Visit www.iowafairtrade.org to see the candidates’ detailed positions and read the full text of the Iowa Fair Trade Campaign statement.

See what they said in the December 12th & 13th Debates in Iowa:

Date: December 2nd, 2007

Situation: Public Question – AMOS (Interfaith group) Forum – Des Moines

Question: Senator Biden, I want to follow up on your comments about immigration. Could you please comment on how NAFTA and other so-called free trade policies have contributed to undocumented immigration by destroying the economic opportunities of many people and thus driving them out of their countries as a result of their economic desperation?

Answer: According to the Register, “Senator Biden responded in part by talking about tainted toys currently shipped to the United States from China” but did not fully answer the question.

For more on this Candidate encounter, see:

www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071203/NEWS09/712030315/1001/NEWS

Date: November 26th, 2007

Situation: Public Questions at candidate event in Glenwood, IA

Question: NAFTA has failed for the US and our trading partners. It has sent family-supporting jobs offshore and fuels environmental damage. NAFTA grants extra rights to foreign investors, bans Buy-America initiatives, and limits our ability to inspect for the safety of children’s toys or the food supply. Will you commit to review and potentially renegotiate NAFTA and to remove these anti-democratic provisions?

Answer: “Yes. I support Fair Trade Completely…”

Date: November 25th, 2007

Situation: Public Question at Event in Glenwood, IA

Question: NAFTA has failed for the US and our trading partners. It has sent family-supporting jobs offshore and fuels environmental damage. NAFTA grants extra rights to foreign investors, bans Buy-America initiatives, and limits our ability to inspect for the safety of children’s toys or the food supply. Will you commit to review and potentially renegotiate NAFTA and to remove these anti-democratic provisions?

Answer: “Yes. I support Fair Trade not Free Trade…”

Date: November 19th, 2007

Situation: Town Hall in Fort Dodge, IA, at Iowa Central Community College – Public Question.

Question: Bad trade deals have sent good jobs overseas. What will you do to support the American workers and restore the middle class?

Answer: Senator Obama said he would “remove tax incentives for US businesses that offshore jobs” and would instead “establish tax incentives for companies that create or keep good jobs here”. He went on to recommend that we put labor and environmental standards into all new trade deals and that we take measures to protect US consumers from lead paint in toys by establishing our inspectors in other countries before export, before entering onto US soil. He also said a new energy economy andinvestments in vital infrastructure would create good jobs.

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.

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.

Date: October 27th, 2007

Situation: Presidential Candidates Forum via Video Chat – Rural Youth Summit – Ames, IA

Question: Senator Clinton was asked what she would do to help reinvigorate the country’s rural areas.

Answer (in part): Senator Clinton said America’s rural areas would benefit from new trade deals that include “good standards for labor and environmental protection.” She also mentioned we’d need to ensure “strong enforcement mechanism, to enforce Country of Origin Labeling, and to close loopholes that give tax breaks to companies that go overseas.”

Date: October 27th, 2007

Situation: Presidential Candidates Forum in Person – Rural Youth Summit – Ames, IA

Question: Senator Edwards was asked what he would do help reinvigorate rural America.

Answer: Senator Edwards mentioned that corporate farms are driving out the family farmers (trade related) hurting small and that Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are destroying the environment. He also mentioned that he would enforce Country of Origin Labeling.