Alliance for Responsible Trade

Call Your Senator during their Thanksgiving recess and tell them the American people want real, not cosmetic changes, to the free trade model.

In last November's elections, the voters sent Congress a strong message that the American people want a change in trade policy. The Wall Street journal reported that six in 10 Republicans in a recent poll agreed with a statement that free trade has been bad for the U.S.

On November 8^th the House of Representatives ignored this mandate and voted 285 to 135 to pass the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement, a NAFTA-style free trade deal which will be devastating to family farmers, indigenous people, workers, the environment and people with AIDS. A vote in the Senate is likely to take place just after the return from recess on December 3^rd.

Call the Senate Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Tell them what state you are from, and they will connect you with one of your Senator's offices. Ask to speak with the Legislative Assistant that deals with trade. If they are not available leave a message, and be sure to say that you live in their state.

Stop the US-Peru FTA vote call script:

Hello, my name is _________, and I live in ______ (your state). May I speak with the staffer that deals with trade issues?

I am calling to find out if Senator's ______________ position on the upcoming U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement. Can you tell me how he/she plans to vote?

It is very important that Senator _____________ come out publicly to oppose this FTA.

Despite changes to the Peru FTA it will still (select one or two of the below talking points):

• THREATEN SMALL FARMERS: The agreement will favor only a small sector of Peruvian farmers who export to the US. By lowering Peru's tariffs on agricultural products, the vast majority of farmers will be vulnerable to cheap subsidized imports from the U.S. This will wipe out local farmers, exactly like what h­as happened to the 1.3 million who have been displaced in Mexico since NAFTA passed 12 years ago.
• THREATEN ACCESS TO LIFE-SAVING MEDICINES. While the amended text of the Peru FTA removes the most egregious, CAFTA-based, provisions limiting the access to affordable medicines, it still includes NAFTA provisions that undermine the right to affordable medicines for poorer countries.
• THREATEN WORKERS AND ENVIRONMENT. Changes to the labor and environment provisions are insufficient. The Peru FTA allows discretion for FTA dispute settlement panels to interpret and apply the terms of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work differently than the Declaration has been interpreted and applied by the ILO itself. Enforcement of the new changes will be dependent on Peruvian President Garcia who has a consistent record of undermining domestic labor and environmental law enforcement.
• THREATEN WOMEN, CHILDREN, AND THE POOR. Provisions promoting the privatization and deregulation of essential services such as water, health care and education are written into this trade agreement. Price rises, which always accompany privatizations, will make these services even less accessible to women and the poor, further increasing their vulnerability.
• THREATEN U.S. AND PERUVIAN SOVEREIGNTY. The Peru FTA contains a NAFTA-style foreign investor chapter that allows corporations to bring actions against governments that pass environmental and public health laws that might reduce corporate profits.
• THREATEN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES by opening the way for large pharmaceutical and agribusiness corporations to patent traditional knowledge, seeds, and life forms. This opens the door to bio-piracy of the Andean-Amazon region and threatens the ecological, medicinal and cultural heritage of indigenous peoples.

Please email Tom Loudon their responses to: art-list@quixote.org.