The Peru Free Trade Agreement

The Peru Free Trade Agreement is emblematic of the problems with our current trade models. Often these agreements fail to measure up to acceptable standards of environmental protection or labor rights, and they frequently give foreign business interests greater rights and opportunities than those available to American investors under United States law.

The labor provisions alone are reason enough to warrant its rejection. PFTA does not require the enforcement of International Labor Organization (ILO) core labor standards. Furthermore, while professing to require signatory nations to enforce existing labor laws, PFTA in reality may well lead to reduced enforcement or even curtailment of these laws – an unacceptable proposition when one considers that Peru is a nation that still has an estimated 2.3 million child laborers. Until trade agreements like PFTA are indeed both free and fair for everyone, I will oppose them.