Welcome!
Thanks for stopping by the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition website.
We encourage you to click through and learn more about our organization, get
key information and the latest news on trade and the global economy, and take
action to fight for fair trade policy and a stronger economy!
Check back often for recent fair trade news, upcoming events, and opportunities
to get involved.
Latest News and Events:
The KOREA
FTA: A Bad Choice for Leftovers
Today
marks the three year anniversary of Bush signing the KORUS trade agreement.
June 30, 2010
Leftovers can often be a gamble. Even more dangerous is if they’ve been sitting out for three years, after being left behind by the last landlord.
President Bush and the Republic of Korea signed the KORUS Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on June 30, 2007. Because of poorly negotiated provisions concerning cars and catfish – refrigerators and rice – as well as TV sets and beef, this FTA couldn’t muster enough support to pass through congress under the Bush Administration.
The Chamber of Commerce is now making a massive push for passage in 2010. Please
contact congress today and ask them to oppose President Bush’s leftover Korea Free Trade Agreement unless it is rewritten.
We need to make sure the Korea FTA is the ending point for the last administration, not a starting point for the new one.
It’s time to cook up something new, and use a fresh recipe for trade reform that helps farmers, workers, small businesses and the environment. We need to make sure this stale Bush agreement does not get rehashed and served up.
Let congressional members know you oppose the Korea Free Trade Agreement unless it is
rewritten.
More Background
Most people won’t touch these leftovers. In fact, since Bush first put it on the table,
not one U.S. labor union, faith group, family farm organization or environmental group has yet to support or endorse the Korea FTA, or advocate for its passage.
Looking back, a majority of House Democrats actually voted against the similar Peru Trade Agreement in 2007. At a minimum, we should expect a majority of the majority to support any trade agreement that comes up for a vote.
Despite improvements to labor and environmental language made under Bush in May of 2007, this agreement is not an acceptable starting point for a new congress and administration. Since that time, we’ve elected a new trade reform President, along with dozens of new fair trade members to both the House and Senate.
Contact your elected officials
today, and ask them to publicly oppose the Korea FTA, and to let the Administration know this deal needs to be renegotiated. Be sure to leave your home address and to ask for a written response.
Click
here for
more info and a list of some of the problematic leftovers from NAFTA that are
included in the Korea FTA..
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Trans
Pacific Partnership Negotiations: Round 2
June
14, 2010
We need you to
send a clear message to Congress that President Obama’s progressive vision of reform must be inserted into ongoing TPP trade talks.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP) trade negotiations start up this week in San Francisco, and include the U.S. and seven Asian and Latin American countries. These meetings offer a long-overdue opportunity to address trade failures of the past, and lay out a new framework for the future.
During his campaign, President Barack Obama outlined a bold vision for trade reform. He committed to create a new model for American trade agreements that puts working people, the environment, family farms and consumers first.
But we cannot be too optimistic. TPP negotiations present both possibilities and peril.
If corporations get their way, a future TPP will include the worst copy-cat provisions cloned from NAFTA and CAFTA. Their multinational pro-status-quo agenda would mirror much of the proposed Bush trade language with Colombia, Panama and Korea.
These failed attempts represent an ending point for the last administration, not a starting point for the new one.
We want to help the President craft a trade agreement that can last, rather than fighting against one that looks like the past.
That’s where you come in.
We need to make clear we need a new deal, or there’s no deal, when it comes to the
TPP.
Write to your elected officials and urge them to support the President’s trade reform commitments. Ask them to demand a TPP that ditches the NAFTA model and crafts a new agenda that works for all of us. Request that they use the TRADE Act as a roadmap to do it right this time.
Another world is possible. Another trade model is needed.
For more on the TPP, visit www.citizenstrade.org/tpp.php
To see Obama trade commitments, visit www.citizenstrade.org/hope.php
See
our press release on the TPP negotiations here.
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Failed
Trade Policies at Root of Immigration Issue
May
3, 2010
On March 31, 2010, a panel discussion on the topic of the immigration was held by a student group at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. The Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition was invited to speak about the root causes of immigration, in particular the impact of current trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in connection to immigration. This forum provided an opportunity to reflect on the failed trade agreements of the past and the impacts they have had on workers, farmers, and communities around the world. As the debate on immigration policy reform gears up, it is useful and important to re-examine this connection between current trade policy and immigration.
With sixteen years since its enactment, NAFTA offers the opportunity to reflect on and gauge the impact of such agreements. Prior to the passage of the NAFTA, proponents claimed such agreements would bring numerous benefits. In the time since, many have examined the impacts and have found otherwise. Although proponents predicted that NAFTA would create more good paying jobs in Mexico, real wages for most workers in Mexico are lower today than before NAFTA was enacted. Further, as Mexican manufacturers were driven out of business with the inflow of foreign companies and as these companies began to later relocate to other countries such as China in search of even cheaper costs of production, the total number of workers employed in manufacturing in Mexico decreased from 2000 to 2004. At the same time, from the early 1990’s before the enactment of NAFTA until 2006, more than 2 million agriculture-related jobs were lost in Mexico. With these conditions and the lack of new jobs to replace those that were eliminated, migration has increased as people have had to leave in search of work.
These negative impacts since NAFTA have been felt not only within Mexico, but also within the United States. In interviews for the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition’s Trade Stories Project, displaced workers from various sectors have shared their stories of job-loss due to companies relocating overseas and the difficulties of finding comparable work after such layoffs. (To read more about these stories, visit
our Trade Stories Project page). Through these stories, it is apparent that while companies may benefit from such moves, workers are often left behind to deal with the negative consequences of these current free trade policies.
As the debate on immigration reform progresses, arguments of immigrant workers replacing US workers may be made, but these only obscure the real problem: a system of trade that has allowed companies to sidestep gains that have been made in the workplace by continuously moving on to the next cheapest source of labor to the disadvantage of workers around the world. Rather than allowing tension between immigrant and nonimmigrant workers obscure the problem, attention should be given to these free trade agreements as the root cause of the problem. Rather than continue with NAFTA-style free trade agreements, it is time we change course and support legislation such as the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development, and Employment (TRADE) Act. With the more balanced model for expanding trade outlined in this act, we may finally start to create trade agreements that produce benefits and create security for working people around the globe.
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TRW
Case Highlights Problems with Free Trade Policies
April 22, 2010
In the summer of 2008, the TRW Automotive plant in Winona, Minnesota laid off workers as production shifted to Reynosa, Mexico. An estimated 150 to 200 workers lost jobs due to these layoffs. Shortly after, four displaced workers shared their stories of job loss with the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition as part of the coalition’s Trade Stories Project. In one interview, Mary McCormick, who had worked at TRW for three years, described how prior to the layoffs, bosses at the plant had used the threat of
off-shoring:
“They kept telling us that this job [would be sent to Mexico] if we didn’t keep doing it faster and faster and faster…They’d give us numbers to meet. Then when we’d meet the numbers, they’d take people away and they’d still want us to meet those numbers or even higher numbers…There was a point where it was everyday you heard, ‘If you don’t do this, it’s going to
Mexico.’”
Although workers met the levels required by management, the company began to send one line, then another, and soon the whole plant to Mexico.
Recently, news of TRW has again surfaced. This time, the focus is on the plant in Reynosa, Mexico. According to these reports, workers in Reynosa have expressed several concerns, in particular:
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TRW has not followed the legal process for transferring workers as it relocated the plant across town and has fired workers who have tried to organize in response.
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The agreed-upon level of pay at the new site is lower than that at the former site.
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There is not sufficient space for workers at the new site.
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There is a lack of transportation for workers to and from the new site (although the last bus leaves at 1:00am, shifts end at 1:45 am and workers must wait until 5:00am for the next bus).
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TRW is refusing to pay severance pay.
This story of TRW and its journey from Minnesota to Mexico highlights important concerns in regard to current free trade policies. As in this case, these current trade agreements allow companies to undermine the rights of workers and the gains they have made in the workplace, and allow companies to benefit while workers are left to deal with the negative consequences.
Although TRW jobs in Minnesota were union and offered $12 an hour with benefits, conditions changed in the shift to Reynosa, where the entry level wages go from $1 per hour to at worse $6.50 per day. As the company transferred jobs to Mexico, once good paying jobs disappeared and the gains workers in Minnesota had made in the workplace eroded as many came to find that remaining jobs in the area offered lower wages, no benefits, and often temporary employment. Now in Mexico, it appears the company is again using similar tactics of relocation to the disadvantage of workers in Reynosa.
As Hector de la Cueva, a former autoworker at a Ford plant in Mexico, stated in Trade Matters, a publication of the national Trade Stories Project:
“Free trade agreements function like transnational blackmail against workers…They say to U.S. and Canadian workers, ‘If you don’t accept less rights and lower salaries, then your jobs will come to Mexico or to other countries’…They tell us, the Mexican workers and South workers, that if we don’t accept our miserable salaries, very bad conditions, and no rights, then the jobs will never come.”
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China
Trade and U.S. Job Loss
April
8, 2010
Last month, the Economic Policy Institute issued a report showing the growing trade deficit between the U.S. and China eliminated or displaced an estimated 2.4 million jobs in the U.S. between 2001 and 2008. The deficit grew by an average of $26.6 billion each year between 2001 and 2008; Chinese exports to the United States in 2008 were more than five times greater than U.S. exports to China.
The new report, Unfair China Trade Costs
Local Jobs, shows that every state in
|
MN Statewide Statistics
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|
Total Employment
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2,713,700
|
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Net Jobs Lost
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58,700
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Share of Total Employment
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2.16%
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State Ranking by share of
Total Employment Lost
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6
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the country suffered jobs lost or displaced because of the trade imbalance. Minnesota has lost 58,700 jobs ranking us #6 in states that have lost the biggest share of their employment due to growing trade deficits with China. Additionally, three of our eight congressional districts rank in the top 50 of districts nationwide with the most job loss. An
interactive map by the Alliance for American Manufacturing shows the results of the report and breaks down the numbers by state, industry and congressional district.
A major reason for the trade imbalance is China's artificially low currency value. While the value of its currency should have increased as China exported more and more goods, it has instead remained artificially low, a result of China's aggressive efforts to manipulate the currency by acquiring more than two trillion dollars in foreign exchange reserves since 2001. This currency manipulation gives China an unfair advantage in global trade. Other factors, like repression of labor rights, have exacerbated the U.S.-China trade imbalance, as suppressed wages contribute to the artificial subsidization of exports.
 On April 15 the U.S. Treasury has to release a report on foreign exchange practices of major U.S. trade partners. In this report the Treasury could (and should) label China a currency manipulator. A grossly undervalued yuan makes Chinese products incredibly cheap and puts American manufacturers and workers on an uneven playing field. Regardless of the Treasury's report, Senators Schumer and Graham say they will introduce legislation aimed at pressuring China to strengthen its currency. The legislation would allow U.S. companies to seek duties on Chinese goods to offset China's currency policies. The senators say they will push for a vote on the bill by the end of May.
-------------------------------------------------
Trans Pacific Partnership:
Potential or Peril?
March
17, 2010
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a major multilateral trade agreement that currently includes four Pacific Rim countries: Singapore, Brunei, Chile, and New Zealand. President Bush announced we would enter negotiations to join in 2008, and President Obama echoed this message in December of 2009. Current TPP members are meeting this week in Australia to discuss expanding membership to four other nations -- Australia, Peru, Vietnam and the United States.
National coalition members including the AFL-CIO and
National Farmers Union have publicly expressed their concerns about the TPP, as have Senators
Franken and
Klobuchar regarding potential impacts on Minnesota’s dairy farmers and producers. These are just a few of the concerns shared by fair trade advocates. Other concerns include
human
rights, free speech and labor organizing violations in Vietnam and Brunei, intellectual property rights, rules of origin, tariffs, and non-tariff trade barriers. For the TPP to receive broad support from the public, labor and civil society organizations and thus Congress, it must address the core issues central to the
TRADE
Act. The TRADE Act
sets forth what should and should not be in future U.S. trade agreements, and should be the model on which our country's trade agenda is based. By co-sponsoring the
TRADE
Act, all Minnesota's House DFL Representatives have signaled their desire for a new framework for U.S. trade policy.
They are not alone in this desire. A majority of voters across all demographics oppose NAFTA-style trade agreements and are ready for a
trade
turnaround. As his first major trade initiative, President Obama is presented with an incredible opportunity to reshape U.S. trade policy and set our country on a path that is good for American businesses, workers and the environment. Will the TPP become NAFTA-lite for the Pacific Rim, or will it embody President Obama’s promise for trade reform articulated in 2008? Fair trade activist across the country will be closely monitoring the TPP negotiations and mobilizing supporters when and where necessary.
What can you do right now to make sure the Trans Pacific Partnership doesn’t follow the same failed model of NAFTA?
Tell
Senators Franken and Klobuchar to co-sponsor the TRADE Act!
If you can help us collect postcards to Senators Franken and Klobuchar in support of the TRADE Act, email or call
us today. The more support we can show from Minnesotans, the better!
To stay up to date on the latest trade news and actions in Minnesota and around the world, sign up for the MN Fair Trade Coalition newsletter by emailing
jlettween@citizenstrade.org
or following us on Facebook.
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TRADE Act Milestone
Majority of majority support!
Thanks to
your advocacy, The TRADE Act
(S.2821)
-- the comprehensive reform bill that turns around our failed trade policy -- has reached a key milestone. We've won support from over half the Democrats in the House of Representatives. We have a new trade reform majority!
Among the list of House cosponsors of The TRADE Act are all of Minnesota's House DFL Representatives. But to actually implement President Obama's campaign commitments to trade reform -- and to replace NAFTA and make sure future agreements work for most people -- the TRADE Act now needs the support of Senators Franken and Klobuchar.
As you can imagine, the Chamber of Commerce and other pro-offshoring forces pushing are not pleased by this great development on the TRADE Act and are redoubling their efforts to thwart change.
Ask Senators Franken and Klobuchar to support the TRADE Act
today, and send a message that it's time for a trade turnaround.
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Minnesota
Fair Trade Coalition Announces New Director
January 29, 2010
MINNESOTA - The Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition announced today the
appointment of Jessica Lettween as their new State Director. Ms. Lettween will
be replacing outgoing Director Alicia Ranney who took a promotion as a full time
staff with the neighborhood organization, Pillsbury United Communities.
"I'm pleased to be leaving MNFTC in a powerful position to shape trade
policy and with such an experienced and capable director as Jessica."
Jessica will maintain and build the 18 year old coalition of environmental,
labor, consumer, family farm, and religious groups to advocate for fairer trade
agreements. Most recently she has been working extensively to affect policy as a
volunteer organizer for Oxfam America campaigns such as Climate Change and Make
Trade Fair.
"Jessica brings the vital experiences of educating and organizing
community leaders on the most pressing issues in our economy," said Steve
Hunter, the Secretary Treasurer of the MN AFL-CIO and MNFTC Steering member.
"This ability to maintain and build a broad-based alliance is critical to
shaping the trade policies that affect all of us in this state."
It was as an undergraduate student of Spanish and Latin American Studies that
Jessica first learned of the effect of failed trade policies. "I did a
research paper on globalization and was shocked to find how agreements such as
NAFTA, that had been touted as beneficial, actually affected people and the
environment in both our country and developing countries," she said. It was
this initial awareness that sparked an interest in pursing a career where she
would have the opportunity to fight for social justice. After college she moved
to St. Paul, MN where she took a job as an administrator for a carpenter's
union, translating for Spanish speakers and assisting members who were
unemployed. She worked there for four years before going to work for the AFL-CIO
where she has been involved with education, outreach, and collaboration on
campaigns at the grassroots and national levels for the past two years. As a
student pursuing a Master of Advocacy and Political Leadership degree, Jessica
is intimately connected with the tools necessary to affect social change on the
national and international scale. "I look forward to being part of such a
powerful coalition of activists and fighting for trade policies that will have
far reaching benefits," states Jessica.
Andy Gussert, Director of the National Citizens Trade Campaign, was pleased
with the pick. "Jessica has the skill set and background to continue to
build a strong coalition of activists who will hold Minnesota elected officials
accountable for their trade votes. We need agreements that work in the interest
of a majority of voters across the state of Minnesota, rather than for a handful
of corporations that dole out massive political contributions and then write the
trade deals in back rooms."
Click
here for the full press release.
From November 30 to December
5, 2009, the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition hosted the Seattle+10: Minnesota
Week of Action with 13 events held across Minnesota in Duluth, St. Paul,
Wayzata, Minneapolis, Mankato, Austin, and Rochester. Events ranged from films
and discussions to workshops and a letter delivery. The week of events ended
with a March and Rally for Trade Justice. The march kicked-off with a speech by
Representative Keith Ellision. Marchers then headed down Ford Parkway passing
the St. Paul Ford Plant which in the last 15 years has seen massive layoffs due
to trade agreements like NAFTA. The march ended with a rally at the United
Auto Workers Local 879 Hall where participants enjoyed a warm meal while hearing
from speakers and visiting tables hosted by various organizations. Thanks to
everyone who came out to show their support for fair trade! Below photos feature
Representative Keith Ellison (left) and marchers passing the Ford Plant in St.
Paul (right).
More photos from
the rally and march are on the MNFTC
Facebook page.
For more news from the
March and Rally and Week of Action, check out:
Workday
Minnesota at http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4267
KSTP Channel 5
news at http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1293786.shtml?cat=1
MNFTC
Members Attend 1st Annual Member Assembly: Celebrates 18 Years of Organizing for
Fair Trade!
On
October 15th, representatives from member organizations from around the state
gathered at the UAW Local 879 Hall for MNFTC's 1st Annual Member Assembly and to
celebrate 18 years of organizing for fair trade in Minnesota.
The
Coalition recognized 2 Fair Trade Leaders in Minnesota. Congressman Collin
Peterson and Fair Trade Activist, Gerardo Cajamarca.
The
Coalition also heard from Andy Gussert, the Executive Director of the Citizens
Trade Campaign. Gussert talked about the current state of trade, and the new
trade turnaround that we'll see for 2010.
Click
here to read the story from Workday Minnesota, "Fair Trade
Coalition Touts positive vision for global economy."
Special thanks goes out to all the organizations who sponsored this years Member
Assembly and helped make it such a success:
Equal
Exchange
Laborers
District Council of Minnesota and North Dakota
Minnesota
AFL-CIO
SEIU
State Council of Minnesota
SEIU
Local 63
Teamsters
Joint Council 32
UAW
Local 879
UAW
State CAP Council
UFCW
Local 789
UNITE-HERE
MN
United
Postal Workers of America - Minneapolis Local
Award
photos taken by Barb Kucera, Editor of Workday Minnesota
Assembly
participants discuss MNFTC's successes, challenges and strategy for 2010.
MN Congressional Leaders Help Launch
Trade Reform
The 2009 TRADE Act was launched today,
Wednesday, June 25, 2009 with 106 Original Cosponsors in the House of
Representatives! MNFTC applauds Minnesota Representatives Keith Ellison,
Betty McCollum, Tim Walz, Jim Oberstar and Collin Peterson for being leaders
in supporting this strong model for trade reform.
Photo
courtesy of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch Division.
Minnesota Trade Stories Project Takes Off
Offshoring and outsourcing are a real concern for many Minnesotans across the
state. With the economic meltdown, staggering unemployment and job loss, it's
become more critical now than ever to raise awareness about the impact of trade
on jobs. The rules of trade agreements like NAFTA are broken. Undemocratic
investment and procurement provisions, unenforced or nonexistent labor
laws and environmental regulations all create conditions of unfair competition
from cheap imports dumped into the market or strong incentives for US companies
to move their operations overseas.
Statistics and data are imperative, but the stories of people in Minnesota
and across the US underscore the urgency of the situation -- lighting the match
under the feet of our policy makers to support a new fair trade model
which supports working families, good jobs, the environment, family farms and
labor and human rights. The Minnesota Trade Stories Project seeks to
collect and share the stories of people in Minnesota who've experienced first
hand the impacts of trade.
:
Read the official Trade Stories Report: Trade
Matters
Do you have a story to share? Was
your job outsourced or offshored to another country. Did you lose your farm
because you were unable to compete with cheap imported food dumped on the
market? Share your story with our project! Contact Jessica at jlettween@citizenstrade.org
or (651)214-6064. Interviews are a short 30 minutes and we come to you.
MN Trade Stories Project works in collaboration with the National
Trade Stories Project. Check out the websites and learn how trade is
impacting people in other states.
Fair Trade Wins Big in Elections!
A total
of 40 new fair-traders won seats
in the House of Representatives and Senate, which represents a net gain of
32 seats, which were previously "free"-trade seats. In addition,
15 fair trade incumbents maintained their seats through tight races. Both
Republicans and Democrats were competing on fair trade platforms; in some
races, the candidates from both parties were anti-NAFTA.
Combined with the 37 pick-ups in the 2006
elections, Citizens Trade Campaign reports that 1/3 of Congress is
solidly fair-trade, and would vote strongly on our issues. Another
1/3 are with us in opposing very bad trade deals, like CAFTA. This
means that we have 2/3 of Congress with us sometimes, half of whom will be
with us all the time, voting for a new direction in trade policy and leading
the fight for change.
Support from the Democratic Party helped to
make the trade issue a top priority in presidential, Congressional and
Senatorial races. More than 130 paid television ads addressed trade,
compared to roughly 25 ads in the 2006 races. President-elect Barack
Obama ran a dozen trade ads, nearly all during the general election. The
party's platform formally states that no future bilateral trade pacts
"will stop the government from protecting the environment, food safety,
or the health of its citizens; give greater rights to foreign investors than
to U.S. investors; require the privatization of our vital public services; or
prevent developing country governments from adopting humanitarian licensing
policies to improve access to life-saving medications."
The results of these elections represent a
broad shift in public opinion. A poll conducted by Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch division found that nearly three-quarters of Americans
believe that a "free trade agreement" has had a negative effect on
their families. And it's not just Democrats-42 percent of Republicans and 52
percent of Independents consider "free trade agreements like NAFTA, and
the policies of the World Trade Organization," to be "a bad
thing" for the U.S. Majorities oppose NAFTA across every
demographic, with Catholic, swing, independent and Hispanic voters among
the most anti-NAFTA blocs.
MINNEAPOLIS - Nearly half a million Minnesota jobs are
vulnerable to being sent overseas, highlighting the need for new trade and tax
policies, the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition announced.
According to analysis by the Economic Policy Institute from this
year, at least 485,000 current Minnesota employees, or 19 percent of all
Minnesota jobs, are considered "offshorable," the coalition said.
Check
out the entire article at Workday Minnesota!
Read the MNFTC
Press Release on Trade and Offshorable Jobs
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