tide turning on free trade consensus
Oregon Fair Trade Coalition, Ashland Member , 28.07.2006 11:52
"Frustration is building as the White House refuses to put decent labor standards in trade agreements."-Michael Geoghegan, Oregon Fair Trade Coalition, affliate of Citizens Trade Campaign 
http://www.citizenstrade.org/oregon.php
Earl Blumenauer Speaks Out Against Free Trade
From The Congressional Record: July 21, 2006
Oregon Representative Earl Blumenauer states his opposition to the US-Oman Free Trade Agreement!
EARL BLUMENAUER
tide turning on free trade consensus - Rep. Blumenauer statement on Oman FTA
Rep. Blumenauer is from up north and is not ours. Here in Southern Oregon we are stuck with Greg Walden... But, check out what Blumenauer put into the Congressional record:
speech of
HON. EARL BLUMENAUER
of oregon
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Mr. BLUMENAUER: Madam Speaker, honest and fair trade will help the U.S. and other countries grow more prosperous and stable. Trade barriers, quotas, and restrictions hurt all but a select few by raising prices for consumers, limiting economic growth, and restricting the ability of developing countries to improve their economies. However, I do not support free trade at any cost. There must be strong protections to ensure that workers benefit from trade, that the environment is protected, and that we provide the necessary help to those who lose out from increased trade.
Before the 2002 vote on "fast-track" trade promotion authority, I told President Bush in a meeting that he could gain broad bi-partisan support for a trade policy that expanded markets for U.S. products and helped developing countries grow themselves out of poverty if he made simple, small changes to the trade agreement model to take into account concerns over labor, the environment, and farmers in developing countries.
However, the Oman Free Trade Agreement continues President Bush's tradition of pushing forward harsh and divisive agreements, designed to pass by the smallest of margins. For example, the Senate Finance Committee voted unanimously to recommend that the trade agreement exclude items made with forced labor, slave labor, or trafficked persons. Despite this, the President refused to make these simple changes that Congress demanded.
Questions of how the United States engages in an increasingly global economy are too critical to our future to use as partisan and political wedges. We must develop a forward-thinking and honest trade policy that can be broadly supported by Americans of all political stripes and that reflects the concerns that I hear from Oregonians. Because the Oman Free Trade Agreement doesn't meet that test, I must oppose it.
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US-Oman FTA - the Good, the Bad & the Ugly 28.07.2006 - 07:07 The Oregon Fair Trade Coalition http://www.citizenstrade.org/orftc.php
July 24, 2006 11:04:26 AM PDT (originally sent) Hey all- Last week, the House approved the US-Oman Free Trade Agreement. Here's a quick run down of how what happened and what it all means for us. Here's the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly on the US-Oman FTA. The Good - The US-Oman Free Trade Agreement passed the House by 17 votes - a very narrow margin. Our goal was always to make it as hard as possible for the White House to jam the agreement through. In that, we were successful. A country that few people had ever heard of became a flashpoint for debate about free trade vs. fair trade. Oregon can be proud that four of our five Congressional Representatives voted against this misguided agreement: Hooley, Defazio, Blumenauer, and Wu. On the Senate side, Sen. Ron Wyden was a vocal critic of the agreement's failure to curb forced labor in Oman. His public position against the deal was important in leading the way for others who spoke against it. In slowing down the Oman trade agreement, we jammed up other trade deals that are in the pipeline like the Free Trade deals with Peru and Columbia. It is unlikely that those agreements will come up for a vote before the elections. That gives us time to regroup, build our coalition and push a strong campaign to defeat free trade agreements instead of just losing by narrow margins. The Bad - Oman is now locked into a free trade agreement with the US that is likely to spread sweatshop export factories in the Middle East. The Sultan of Oman did pass a royal decree legalizing workers rights, but few people believe it will change much for the guestworkers in Oman who make up more than 30% of the workforce. In denying people the right to improve their conditions in life, the Oman trade agreement is bad foreign policy. It's a recipe for social unrest in a volite region of the world. The Ugly - Rep. Greg Walden extended his pro-NAFTA voting record. Last year he helped pass the contoversial CAFTA. Now he's voted for Oman. The same is true for Oregon Senator Gordon Smith. In neighboring Washington, Rep. Brian Baird voted for the Oman deal. He's not in Oregon, but close enough that it feels like we let him slip though the cracks. Thank you to everyone who made a call, sent an email or signed a postcard to let our elected representatives know that we support fair trade over free trade. -Michael from the Oregon Fair Trade Coalition> John Sweeney on Oman's FTA passage... 30.07.2006 - 13:11 
john sweeney from the afl-cio website http://www.aflcio.org/mediacenter/prsptm/pr07202006a.cfm
Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney On Passage of U.S-Oman FTA in House July 20, 2006 The closeness of today's vote on the Oman Free Trade Agreement demonstrates that the trade debate in this country is becoming more intense, as politicians in both parties are beginning to realize that our trade policy needs deep reform, not acceleration. The House of Representatives approved the agreement this afternoon by a narrower than expected margin, 221-205. Only 22 Democrats voted for this flawed deal, along with 199 Republicans, while 176 Democrats (almost 90 percent of the caucus) and 28 Republicans voted no. With working people going to the polls in only three and a half months, members of Congress are increasingly reluctant to ratify this administration's failed trade policy. This policy has resulted in an exploding and out-of-control trade deficit (now at an annual rate of $800 billion a year), millions of good jobs lost, eroding standards of living for the typical worker, and devastated communities. The upside-down priorities of the Bush Administration are reflected in this deeply flawed agreement. The Oman deal has the same weak and inadequate protections for workers' rights contained in CAFTA and the other FTAs negotiated by this administration. These provisions are made all the more problematic because Oman's labor laws are the weakest of any country with which we have ever negotiated a free trade agreement. There are no independent unions operating in Oman today, nor is there any tradition of freedom of association or representative democracy. The State Department has identified Oman as a destination country for men and women who become victims of trafficking and forced labor, yet the Republican leadership and the Administration refused to include an amendment passed by the Senate Finance Committee that would have ensured that no goods made with forced labor benefited from this agreement. The Oman deal also threatens our national security by potentially opening up landside port operations to Omani-based companies - precisely the kind of transaction rejected by Congress and the American public in the Dubai ports debacle. While we in the American labor movement were deeply disappointed in today's outcome, we also believe the closeness of the vote reflects the tremendous progress we have made over the last decade in bringing the issues of fairness and workers' rights to the center of the trade debate. We plan to work harder than ever to ensure that America's trade policies reflect the values and protect the interests of America's working families, and create a foundation for a truly just global economy. OR-FAIR TRADE COALITION MEMBER> |