Source: Public Citizen
In Brief: Tell Congress again that we don’t want a NAFTA
expansion to Peru – write your representative now!
http://action.citizen.org
The Bush administration has just sent the official Peru "free trade" agreement (FTA) legislation to Congress. Under Fast Track procedures, this means that this latest Bush NAFTA expansion must come to a vote within 60 days – most likely this month!
Opposition is building in Congress, but unfortunately some powerful Democratic congressional leaders have begun to really pressure their colleagues to vote wrong on this NAFTA expansion.
Please take one minute to urge your representative to oppose President Bush’s NAFTA expansion and vote against HR 3688 – the Peru FTA.
http://action.citizen.org
When some Democratic trade leaders made a deal in May with the Bush administration to revive the Peru NAFTA expansion that your hard work had derailed last year, we held out hope that opposition to the deal by a majority of congressional Democrats would prevent it from ever coming to a vote.
Unfortunately, a vote is now imminent. And the pressure is building. So we need to make sure that this vote shows once and for all that the NAFTA expansion agenda MUST be junked.
Not one U.S. labor, environmental, Latino civil rights, faith, consumer, or anti-poverty group supports this deal. In the last few weeks those allies have been joined by Peruvian-American, immigrants’ rights, faith groups and more saying that the FTA is going to dramatically hurt Peru, and thus increase pressures on small farmers to attempt migration to the United States. Additionally, Oxfam bluntly told Congress that the Peru FTA will "undermine development and poverty reduction in Peru."
Peruvian-American/etc letter:
http://www.citizen.org/documen
092507.pdf
Oxfam letter:
http://www.citizen.org/documen
The Peru deal repeats most of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) text word for word – the outrageous foreign investor privileges to attack environmental and health laws in foreign tribunals, the bans on Buy America and anti-offshoring policy, the limits on imported food safety and more.
Luckily, we all have a chance to weigh in before a full floor vote. That’s why it’s important to take action NOW – even if you’ve already done it before – and send an e-mail to your representative urging them to oppose this NAFTA expansion. http://action.citizen.org
For the latest developments, see the Peru FTA section of our blog, Eyes On Trade. And keep an eye on this space – we’ll be sending out updates as a vote on the NAFTA expansion to Peru draws closer. Eyes On Trade:
http://citizen.typepad.com
ex.html