RANGEL, MEEKS, AND CROWLEY: Stop Supporting Bush's Leftover Free Trade Agreements!
RANGEL, MEEKS, AND CROWLEY:
Stop Supporting Bush’s Leftover Free Trade Agreements!
Three New York City Congressional representatives -- Charles Rangel, Gregory Meeks, and Joseph Crowley -- are currently under investigation for possible ethics violations. Perhaps its no coincidence that these three reps also support ratification of Bush-negotiated job-killing NAFTA-style free trade agreements (FTAs) with Colombia, Latin America's most corrupt government and worst human rights abuser, Panama, a notorious corporate tax haven, and a trade deal with South Korea, that will lead to financial industry deregulation, Rangel, Meeks, and Crowley have pushed these deals against the opposition of the majority of House democrats who wisely realize that NAFTA has hurt our economy and damaged the environment. Unfortunately, corporate interests who wish to avoid paying taxes, outsource jobs to countries where the assassination of union organizers is common, and increase profits by pushing generic drugs off the market have lobbied hard and contributed richly to ensure that Rangel, Meeks, and Crowley will put corporate interests before the public interest and push for the passage of these trade deals.
South Korea FTA: Deregulating Financial Services while Hurting Workers and Consumers
The South Korea - US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) is the first of three trade agreements negotiated by the Bush administration, but as of yet not ratified by Congress. Referring to the South Korea FTA n a letter to President Obama in July, "110 members of the House of Representatives stated that “At a time when our economy is struggling to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression, it is unthinkable to consider moving forward with another job-killing FTA." According to Citigroup’s Laura Lane, corporate co-chair of the U.S.-Korea FTA Business Coalition, “it is the best financial services chapter negotiated in a free trade agreement to date.” Perhaps Lane is hoping for more bailout money. According to Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, “The Korea FTA’s Financial Services chapter reflects the pro-deregulation mentality that helped foster the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression….[and] commits its signatory countries to refrain from limiting the size of financial institutions, imposing firewalls between the sort of financial services one firm may offer, banning toxic derivatives, or controlling destabilizing capital flights and floods. According to Citizen's Trade Campaign (CTC), “the Korea FTAs’ foreign investor chapters….promote off-shoring, and subject our domestic environmental, zoning, health and other public interest policies to challenge by foreign investors in foreign tribunals.” US corporations will enjoy these same benefits in South Korea, and endangering Korean public interest laws. CTC also argues that government procurement rules in the trade agreement ban “anti-off-shoring and Buy America policies and expose U.S. renewable energy, recycled content and other environmental safety requirements to challenge.” The agreement also will force both nations to lower safety restrictions on food imports. This will lower the bar on food safety for producers in both nations, meaning food safety will be lowered on both imported and domestic products.
Colombia FTA: Trade Deal with A Government of Corrupt Politicians Tied to Drug Lords and Death Squads
Meeks and Crowley love lavishing praise on outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Rangel never misses a chance to express his desire to ratify a free trade agreement with Uribe's government. Perhaps in the Uribe government, these ethically challenged politicians see kindred spirits. 62 members of Colombia's Congress -- political allies of President Uribe including the Congress' former President, Uribe's cousin Mario Uribe Escobar - were deemed official suspects with 33 jailed for collusion with the right-wing paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). AUC is recognized by the US State department as a terrorist organization, controls the majority of the cocaine trade in Colombia, and is responsible for a large-scale campaign of civilian assassinations. Thousands have been killed -- union organizers, indigenous leaders, and journalists. Colombia has the second highest rate of internal displacement on the planet, with 4.9 million displaced persons, mostly members of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities displaced to repurpose their lands for oil palm plantations, often at the behest of foreign corporate interests. Labor unions, human rights groups, and environmentalists in both the US and Colombia universally oppose the trade agreement, which will increase foreign direct investment and allow corporations to sue for lost profits over environmental and labor law enforcement, all factors that will exacerbate Colombia's present problems. The FTA will also eliminate tariffs on subsidized US agribusiness exports to Colombia, destroying the livelihoods of family farmers in Colombia and driving them into the coca and illegal wildlife trades to survive. Increased coca production will increase the supply of cocaine coming in the United State and provide a pretext to increase US-backed aerial fumigation program that is destroying critical endangered bird habitat in the Amazon rainforest.
Panama FTA: Locking in Corporate Tax Loopholes
Anthony Weiner was right to object to Republicans on the House floor for opposing a 9/11 health bill that would have been funded by closing loopholes that allow offshore corporate tax havens. But members of Weiner's own party are also helping to maintain corporate tax loopholes. Free trade Democrats support Bush’s Panama Free Trade Agreement, even though Panama is a notorious corporate tax haven. Panama's banking secrecy rules not only help corporations hide their money, but also provide an ideal climate for money laundering and drug smuggling. According to Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, The Panama Free Trade Agreement "includes the controversial private “investor-state” enforcement system, which would give new powers to hundreds of thousands of private investors from around the world that are registered and have operations in Panama. This includes the right to challenge U.S. anti-tax haven policies and financial service regulations in foreign tribunals to demand taxpayer-funded compensation." In a nation where logging, hydroelectric, mining, and shrimp farming projects are devastating inland forests, coastal mangrove forests, and the lands of indigenous peoples, the free trade agreement will institute state-investor provisions that give US corporations the right to sue the government for loss of profits they MIGHT have made in the future if the government chooses to enforce its environmental laws and suspend or regulate a project in which they have invested capital.
Meeks, Crowley, and Rangel: PACs Over People?
Polls consistently identify the economy as the #1 issue for voters in the 2008 and 2010 Congressional elections, with a majority of voters viewing free trade as harmful to the US economy. Why are Rangel, Crowley, and Meeks so out of step with the electorate and rank and file Democrats in Congress? Follow the money.
The Latin America Trade Coalition is, by its own description “a broad-based group of more than 1,200 U.S. companies, business organizations, farm and ranch groups, and chambers of commerce working to secure Congressional approval of the Trade Promotion Agreements with Colombia and Panama.” Its members have provided rich rewards to politicians willing to sell out their constituents to expand a model of trade that a majority of voters strongly oppose. The U.S.-Korea FTA Business Coalition describes itself as “a broad-based group of U.S. companies, industry organizations, trade associations, and state and local chambers of commerce that strongly support Congressional approval of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA).”
With Charles Rangel no longer chairing the House Ways and Means Committee, he's not commanding the same large corporate financial backing he enjoyed in the previous election. However, a look at Rangel's 2008 contributors goes a long way to explaining his enthusiasm for free trade agreements. Rangel's # 2 campaign contributor in 2008 AXA, a member of the U.S.-Korea Business Coalition, gave Rangel $62,100 to see things their way. Rangel's #3 and #4 donors in 2008, Citigroup ($61,950) and JP Morgan Chase ($61,700) members of both the Latin American Trade Coalition and the US-Korea Business Coalition. Citigroup’s senior vice president for public policy sits on the steering commitees of both groups.
Crowley, as chair of the New Democrat Coalition, has been leading the charge of pro-corporate Democrats who oppose the majority of their party's opposition to free trade agreements. Crowley, like Rangel, is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has authority over trade issues. According to the Daily News “Crowley has raised lots of cash from lobbyists and political action committees with business before his Ways and Means Committee.” Crowley's #1 campaign contributor in 2010, the National Association of Home Builders is a member of the U.S.-Korea Business Coalition. Crowley's #4 2010 contributor, General Electric ($18,000) is a member of both the Latin American Trade Coalition and the U.S.-Korea Business Coalition. Crowley’s #5 contributor in 2009, Bank of America ($22,500) is also a member of the Latin American Trade Coalition.
Meeks has been Congress' most outspoken apologist for the Colombian government's corruption and human rights abuses. It should come as no surprise then that his second biggest campaign contributor in the 2010 election cycle is one of the strongest backers of free trade agreements and a Latin American Trade Coalition and U.S.-Korea Business Coalition member, Fed Ex, which contributed $15,000 to his campaign. In fact, Meeks’ Top 10 contributors read like a roll call of LATC and US-Korea Business Coalition members: AT&T (#4 - $12,500), Bank of America (#7 - $11,300), Wal-Mart and UPS (tied at #8 - $10,000 each) are all members of both.
Solution: The TRADE Act
Senator Sherrod Brown and Representative Mike Michaud have introduced The TRADE Act, H.R. 3012: Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act of 2010. According to Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch “The TRADE Act requires a review of existing trade pacts, including NAFTA, the WTO and other major pacts, and sets forth what must and must not be included in future trade pacts. It also provides for the renegotiation of existing trade agreements and describes the key elements of a new trade negotiating and approval mechanism to replace Fast Track - the undemocratic negotiating system that got us into WTO and NAFTA - that would enhance Congress’ role in the formative aspects of agreements.”
145 House Democrats have co-sponsored the TRADE Act, including NYC Representatives - Ackerman, Serrano, Clarke, Velazquez, and Nadler. By co-sponsoring the TRADE Act, representatives show their support for raising the bar on public interest safeguards in trade agreements to a standard that the Panama and Colombia FTAs fail to meet, making a powerful statement against these trade agreements.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
* Write, call, fax, and email Reps. Rangel, Meeks, Crowley, and your local representative and Senators and ask them to support fairier trade policies. Urge them to denounce the Panama and Colombia Free Trade Agreements. as as we as the South Korea free trade agreements, all of which await a vote in Congress.
To find your Representative and Senators' contact information, visit http://snipurl.com/LegLookup
The Honorable Charles B. Rangel, United States House of Representatives, 2354 Rayburn House Office Building. Washington, D.C. 20515-3215 | Phone:202-225-4365 | Fax:202-225-0816 | Email: rangel@mail.house.gov
The Honorable Gregory W. Meeks, United States House of Representatives, 2342 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515-3206 | Phone 202/225-3461 | Fax 202/226-4169 | Email: congmeeks@mail.house.gov
The Honorable Joseph Crowley, United States House of Representative, 2404 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515-3207
Phone: (202) 225-3965 | Fax: 202-225-1909 Email Webform: http://snipurl.com/emailcrowley
Stop Supporting Bush’s Leftover Free Trade Agreements!
Three New York City Congressional representatives -- Charles Rangel, Gregory Meeks, and Joseph Crowley -- are currently under investigation for possible ethics violations. Perhaps its no coincidence that these three reps also support ratification of Bush-negotiated job-killing NAFTA-style free trade agreements (FTAs) with Colombia, Latin America's most corrupt government and worst human rights abuser, Panama, a notorious corporate tax haven, and a trade deal with South Korea, that will lead to financial industry deregulation, Rangel, Meeks, and Crowley have pushed these deals against the opposition of the majority of House democrats who wisely realize that NAFTA has hurt our economy and damaged the environment. Unfortunately, corporate interests who wish to avoid paying taxes, outsource jobs to countries where the assassination of union organizers is common, and increase profits by pushing generic drugs off the market have lobbied hard and contributed richly to ensure that Rangel, Meeks, and Crowley will put corporate interests before the public interest and push for the passage of these trade deals.
South Korea FTA: Deregulating Financial Services while Hurting Workers and Consumers
The South Korea - US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) is the first of three trade agreements negotiated by the Bush administration, but as of yet not ratified by Congress. Referring to the South Korea FTA n a letter to President Obama in July, "110 members of the House of Representatives stated that “At a time when our economy is struggling to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression, it is unthinkable to consider moving forward with another job-killing FTA." According to Citigroup’s Laura Lane, corporate co-chair of the U.S.-Korea FTA Business Coalition, “it is the best financial services chapter negotiated in a free trade agreement to date.” Perhaps Lane is hoping for more bailout money. According to Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, “The Korea FTA’s Financial Services chapter reflects the pro-deregulation mentality that helped foster the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression….[and] commits its signatory countries to refrain from limiting the size of financial institutions, imposing firewalls between the sort of financial services one firm may offer, banning toxic derivatives, or controlling destabilizing capital flights and floods. According to Citizen's Trade Campaign (CTC), “the Korea FTAs’ foreign investor chapters….promote off-shoring, and subject our domestic environmental, zoning, health and other public interest policies to challenge by foreign investors in foreign tribunals.” US corporations will enjoy these same benefits in South Korea, and endangering Korean public interest laws. CTC also argues that government procurement rules in the trade agreement ban “anti-off-shoring and Buy America policies and expose U.S. renewable energy, recycled content and other environmental safety requirements to challenge.” The agreement also will force both nations to lower safety restrictions on food imports. This will lower the bar on food safety for producers in both nations, meaning food safety will be lowered on both imported and domestic products.
Colombia FTA: Trade Deal with A Government of Corrupt Politicians Tied to Drug Lords and Death Squads
Meeks and Crowley love lavishing praise on outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Rangel never misses a chance to express his desire to ratify a free trade agreement with Uribe's government. Perhaps in the Uribe government, these ethically challenged politicians see kindred spirits. 62 members of Colombia's Congress -- political allies of President Uribe including the Congress' former President, Uribe's cousin Mario Uribe Escobar - were deemed official suspects with 33 jailed for collusion with the right-wing paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). AUC is recognized by the US State department as a terrorist organization, controls the majority of the cocaine trade in Colombia, and is responsible for a large-scale campaign of civilian assassinations. Thousands have been killed -- union organizers, indigenous leaders, and journalists. Colombia has the second highest rate of internal displacement on the planet, with 4.9 million displaced persons, mostly members of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities displaced to repurpose their lands for oil palm plantations, often at the behest of foreign corporate interests. Labor unions, human rights groups, and environmentalists in both the US and Colombia universally oppose the trade agreement, which will increase foreign direct investment and allow corporations to sue for lost profits over environmental and labor law enforcement, all factors that will exacerbate Colombia's present problems. The FTA will also eliminate tariffs on subsidized US agribusiness exports to Colombia, destroying the livelihoods of family farmers in Colombia and driving them into the coca and illegal wildlife trades to survive. Increased coca production will increase the supply of cocaine coming in the United State and provide a pretext to increase US-backed aerial fumigation program that is destroying critical endangered bird habitat in the Amazon rainforest.
Panama FTA: Locking in Corporate Tax Loopholes
Anthony Weiner was right to object to Republicans on the House floor for opposing a 9/11 health bill that would have been funded by closing loopholes that allow offshore corporate tax havens. But members of Weiner's own party are also helping to maintain corporate tax loopholes. Free trade Democrats support Bush’s Panama Free Trade Agreement, even though Panama is a notorious corporate tax haven. Panama's banking secrecy rules not only help corporations hide their money, but also provide an ideal climate for money laundering and drug smuggling. According to Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, The Panama Free Trade Agreement "includes the controversial private “investor-state” enforcement system, which would give new powers to hundreds of thousands of private investors from around the world that are registered and have operations in Panama. This includes the right to challenge U.S. anti-tax haven policies and financial service regulations in foreign tribunals to demand taxpayer-funded compensation." In a nation where logging, hydroelectric, mining, and shrimp farming projects are devastating inland forests, coastal mangrove forests, and the lands of indigenous peoples, the free trade agreement will institute state-investor provisions that give US corporations the right to sue the government for loss of profits they MIGHT have made in the future if the government chooses to enforce its environmental laws and suspend or regulate a project in which they have invested capital.
Meeks, Crowley, and Rangel: PACs Over People?
Polls consistently identify the economy as the #1 issue for voters in the 2008 and 2010 Congressional elections, with a majority of voters viewing free trade as harmful to the US economy. Why are Rangel, Crowley, and Meeks so out of step with the electorate and rank and file Democrats in Congress? Follow the money.
The Latin America Trade Coalition is, by its own description “a broad-based group of more than 1,200 U.S. companies, business organizations, farm and ranch groups, and chambers of commerce working to secure Congressional approval of the Trade Promotion Agreements with Colombia and Panama.” Its members have provided rich rewards to politicians willing to sell out their constituents to expand a model of trade that a majority of voters strongly oppose. The U.S.-Korea FTA Business Coalition describes itself as “a broad-based group of U.S. companies, industry organizations, trade associations, and state and local chambers of commerce that strongly support Congressional approval of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA).”
With Charles Rangel no longer chairing the House Ways and Means Committee, he's not commanding the same large corporate financial backing he enjoyed in the previous election. However, a look at Rangel's 2008 contributors goes a long way to explaining his enthusiasm for free trade agreements. Rangel's # 2 campaign contributor in 2008 AXA, a member of the U.S.-Korea Business Coalition, gave Rangel $62,100 to see things their way. Rangel's #3 and #4 donors in 2008, Citigroup ($61,950) and JP Morgan Chase ($61,700) members of both the Latin American Trade Coalition and the US-Korea Business Coalition. Citigroup’s senior vice president for public policy sits on the steering commitees of both groups.
Crowley, as chair of the New Democrat Coalition, has been leading the charge of pro-corporate Democrats who oppose the majority of their party's opposition to free trade agreements. Crowley, like Rangel, is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has authority over trade issues. According to the Daily News “Crowley has raised lots of cash from lobbyists and political action committees with business before his Ways and Means Committee.” Crowley's #1 campaign contributor in 2010, the National Association of Home Builders is a member of the U.S.-Korea Business Coalition. Crowley's #4 2010 contributor, General Electric ($18,000) is a member of both the Latin American Trade Coalition and the U.S.-Korea Business Coalition. Crowley’s #5 contributor in 2009, Bank of America ($22,500) is also a member of the Latin American Trade Coalition.
Meeks has been Congress' most outspoken apologist for the Colombian government's corruption and human rights abuses. It should come as no surprise then that his second biggest campaign contributor in the 2010 election cycle is one of the strongest backers of free trade agreements and a Latin American Trade Coalition and U.S.-Korea Business Coalition member, Fed Ex, which contributed $15,000 to his campaign. In fact, Meeks’ Top 10 contributors read like a roll call of LATC and US-Korea Business Coalition members: AT&T (#4 - $12,500), Bank of America (#7 - $11,300), Wal-Mart and UPS (tied at #8 - $10,000 each) are all members of both.
Solution: The TRADE Act
Senator Sherrod Brown and Representative Mike Michaud have introduced The TRADE Act, H.R. 3012: Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act of 2010. According to Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch “The TRADE Act requires a review of existing trade pacts, including NAFTA, the WTO and other major pacts, and sets forth what must and must not be included in future trade pacts. It also provides for the renegotiation of existing trade agreements and describes the key elements of a new trade negotiating and approval mechanism to replace Fast Track - the undemocratic negotiating system that got us into WTO and NAFTA - that would enhance Congress’ role in the formative aspects of agreements.”
145 House Democrats have co-sponsored the TRADE Act, including NYC Representatives - Ackerman, Serrano, Clarke, Velazquez, and Nadler. By co-sponsoring the TRADE Act, representatives show their support for raising the bar on public interest safeguards in trade agreements to a standard that the Panama and Colombia FTAs fail to meet, making a powerful statement against these trade agreements.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
* Write, call, fax, and email Reps. Rangel, Meeks, Crowley, and your local representative and Senators and ask them to support fairier trade policies. Urge them to denounce the Panama and Colombia Free Trade Agreements. as as we as the South Korea free trade agreements, all of which await a vote in Congress.
To find your Representative and Senators' contact information, visit http://snipurl.com/LegLookup
The Honorable Charles B. Rangel, United States House of Representatives, 2354 Rayburn House Office Building. Washington, D.C. 20515-3215 | Phone:202-225-4365 | Fax:202-225-0816 | Email: rangel@mail.house.gov
The Honorable Gregory W. Meeks, United States House of Representatives, 2342 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515-3206 | Phone 202/225-3461 | Fax 202/226-4169 | Email: congmeeks@mail.house.gov
The Honorable Joseph Crowley, United States House of Representative, 2404 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515-3207
Phone: (202) 225-3965 | Fax: 202-225-1909 Email Webform: http://snipurl.com/emailcrowley