Wednesday,
June 3rd
National
Call-in Day to Stop Fast Track for TPP, TTIP, & TISA
Say
No to Corporate Power Grabs Disguised as Trade Deals!
Stop
the Fast Track to Corporate Rule!
Congress
is pushing legislation right now that would "Fast Track"
the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership, and the Trade In Services Agreement — secretive
international deals negotiated behind closed doors by government
bureaucrats with inside track access for over 500 corporate
“advisers”. These agreements threatens everything we care
about: democracy, jobs, wages and labor rights, the environment,
consumer protection laws, financial industry legislation, access to
affordable medicines, family farmers, animal protection laws,
internet freedom, and more!
How
Fast Track Helps Implement Bad Trade Deals by Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch
Under
the U.S. Constitution, Congress writes the laws and sets trade
policy. And so it was for 200 years. President Nixon seized both of
those powers through a mechanism known as Fast Track – a
legislative luge run used to skid through harmful “trade”
deals. Candidate Obama said he would “replace Fast Track …
I will ensure that Congress plays a strong and informed role in our
international economic policy and in any future agreements we
pursue...” Instead, now he is asking Congress to revive Nixon’s
old Fast Track process.
Of
the 500+ U.S. trade agreements enacted since 1974 when Fast Track was
hatched, Fast Track was only used for 16 of them, showing that Fast
Track is not needed to pass trade deals. Rather, Fast Track has been
used to ram through Congress sweeping pacts such as the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade
Organization (WTO). These deals, like TPP, extend far beyond
traditional trade business (like tariff-cutting) to impose retrograde
constraints on our domestic financial, energy, medicine-patent, food
safety, immigration, procurement and other policies. TPP would even
limit internet freedom.
Fast
Track hands the executive branch five key congressional powers –
steamrolling key checks and balances in the Constitution by seizing
authority vested in our congressional representatives:
o
Power to select trade partners,
o
Power to set terms and sign sweeping “trade” agreements
before Congress votes on them,
o
Power to write legislation to change all U.S. laws needed to conform
with the agreements, skirt congressional review and amendments and
directly submit this legislation for a vote,
o
Power to force votes within 60-90 days of submitting the implementing
legislation to Congress,
o
Power to override normal voting rules. All amendments on Fast-Tracked
FTAs are banned and debate is limited, including in the Senate.
Last
week, the Senate passed Fast Track. The Senate Fast Track bill
contained an amendment that which would prohibit Fast Track from
being applied to trade agreements with countries that are failing to
address the human trafficking – including TPP member nation
Malaysia. Outrageously, House Ways and Means Chair Paul Ryan and
President Obama want to remove this human rights defending language
from the House version of the bill!
WHAT
YOU CAN DO
*
Call your Representative and urge her to publicly commit to opposing
Fast Track (also called Trade Promotion Authority). Let her know that
no amendments or side deals will make Fast Track legislation
acceptable. Tell her Congress should maintain its power to carefully
review deals like TPP, TTIP, and TISA on its own timeline and when
necessary, amend them. Also urge your Representative to oppose
efforts to remove the human trafficking amendment from the bill. You
can find your Representative's name and phine number at
http://clicktocallcongress.org
or by calling (718) 218-4523.
*
Contact TradeJustice New York Metro to find out how you can volunteer
to stop Fast Track and to be connected with efforts to influence your
Representative to oppose Fast Track, even if you live outside the NY
metro region.
Phone: (718) 218-4523 * Email: info@tradejustice.net * Web: http://tradejustice.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/OWSTradeJustice * Donate: http://tradejustice.net/donate Facebook Page: http://tradejustice.net/fbp * Facebook Group: http://tradejustice.net/fbg Email Lists: http://tradejustice.net/elists * E-Petition: https://www.causes.com/stoptpp
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