And the saga continues........

A co-worker brought this item to my attention around a week ago and then it hit my in-box again a couple of days ago when a friend sent me a link to David Sirota’s Blog entry on the subject. It seems Maria Cantwell still has yet to meet a “Free Trade” agreement she couldn’t vote for. This time it is the Omani Free Trade Agreement .

Now, any time I see the words “Free Trade”, I immediately cringe. I mean, in spite of the continuing claims by the so-called Free Traders in the senate, this country is still suffering a net loss of jobs (especially living wage jobs) and an ever growing trade deficit. Where I am mostly at a loss, however, is when Democrats such as Maria Cantwell, who claim to be defenders of worker’s rights and environmental protection, simply close their eyes and ears to those very concerns and vote with the neo-con/DLCers. In addition to Cantwell, other “Free Trade Democrats” to vote for this agreement were: Baucus (MT), Clinton (NY), Kerry (MA), Landrieu (LA), Lieberman (CT), Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Obama (IL) and Salazar (CO). (Patty Murray gets a “pass” here because she was not in DC for the vote; make your own guess as to where you think she would have been on this.)

So what benefits can American labor unions gain from this deal with that trading power house, Oman? According to Citizens Trade Campaign , a coalition of environmental, labor, consumer, family farm, religious, and other civil society groups:
“As in CAFTA, the Oman Free Trade Agreement requires, with a minimal level of enforcement, only that Oman enforce its existing labor law. This would perpetuate the NAFTA/CAFTA model that ensures that good jobs will flow out of the United States to be done under artificially low-wage conditions in our trading partner nations…””…Omani labor law gives the government an entirely inappropriate level of oversight and control over the activities, meetings, finances, and selection of representatives of the national and industrial “worker representative committees.” It fails to explicitly protect workers who participate in these committees or who engage in strikes from anti-union discrimination. While all workers in Oman are denied basic labor rights, the large foreign workforce, the majority of workers in Oman, are especially vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. The State Department has found both forced labor and Human trafficking in Oman.”

Well then, what environmental protections will be enforced via this agreement? According to a coalition of environmental watchdog groups including The Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth :
”The Oman and Peru Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) contain the same weak and unenforceable Environment Chapters that plagued CAFTA - Like CAFTA, the agreements fail to clearly require either country to maintain and effectively enforce a set of basic environmental laws and regulations. - There are no binding obligations for countries to comply with their existing commitments under international environmental agreements and no penalty for countries that do not enforce these obligations. Nor are countries required to adopt the provisions of key international environmental agreements, including biodiversity and species protection agreements…”

So who does benefit from this agreement? According to the Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health :
”Industries sitting on Advisory Committees to the U.S. Trade Representative include tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceuticals, health insurance, and processed foods…””…In its Advisory Committee report, the pharmaceutical industry and allies hailed the Oman agreement for including rules that extend the length of time drugs are covered by patent protections, and that preclude fair market competition from generic companies that could lower prices…””…The FTA would eliminate tobacco tariffs that now effectively control the use of deadly tobacco products in Oman. Oman has a high 100% tariff on tobacco products now. The FTA would bar Oman from raising its tariff higher. To the contrary, the 100% duty is required to be phased out for US tobacco exports in ten years…” And, finally, “…By covering health care and other services under trade rules, the Oman FTA would facilitate privatization of these services, making them less affordable and less publicly accountable. While health is universally recognized as a human right, it may become a market commodity if trade agreements do not protect affordable universal access to health care.”

Now I don’t know about you, but I do not recall being approached by Senator Cantwell’s office about this to see where her constituents might stand on this issue. I mention this only because this issue now goes to the U.S. House where our representatives will have the opportunity to stand up to this continuing sell out of American jobs and environmental protections. There is time for you to reach out to your congressman to ask them to do what Cantwell will not.

The time to reach out to Senator Cantwell will come in September when you will have the opportunity to let her know that you prefer Mark Wilson’s position on Fair Trade versus “Free Trade” and his commitment to protections for America’s workers over Global Corporations.

Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue