106 Members of Congress Introduce TRADE Act; Promote a Better Trade Model |
Wednesday, June 24 2009 | |
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Mike Michaud, Chairman of the House Trade Working Group, announced that 106 Members of Congress have joined to introduce the “Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act,” (H.R. 3012) a bill that would mandate trade pact reviews, establish standards, protect workers, and help restore congressional oversight of future trade agreements. Endorsed by more than a dozen fair trade groups, the TRADE Act would revamp U.S. trade policy. Lists of cosponsors, supportive groups and a summary of the legislation are attached. “We all know that we live in a globalized world. But we need to ensure trade is fair for our workers and economy. The TRADE Act shows what we are for in future trade agreements – and paves the way on how to fix our existing agreements,” Michaud said. The cosponsors reflect the broad demand in Congress for a new direction on trade. 106 Members of Congress cosponsored the bill, including 9 committee chairs, 45 subcommittee chairs and members of the classes of 2006 and 2008. The cosponsors include members of the Democratic Caucus, Republican Caucus, 17 Blue Dogs, 14 New Democrats, the Hispanic Caucus, the Black Caucus, the Progressive Caucus and the Populist Caucus. They represent a diversity of both urban and rural districts which have been negatively affected by current U.S. trade and globalization policy. “This is an exciting day for trade policy,” said Michaud. “Last year, we had 74 cosponsors of the TRADE Act and this year we have 106. Members are sick and tired of being against trade agreements and they want to stand for something. I have no doubt the number of cosponsors have increased because the American people are demanding a new course on trade. The TRADE Act is a tremendous step forward in the debate and could help shape the future of our trade policies.” The full text of the bill can be found here: http://www.michaud.house.gov/images//tradeactfinal.pdf
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Summary of Key Provisions of the TRADE Act:
Review: The bill requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a comprehensive review of the major trade pacts that comprise the model on which U.S. trade agreement have been based, such as NAFTA, WTO, and CAFTA. The review, which must be completed before new trade negotiations or congressional consideration of pending pacts, includes an assessment of economic outcomes in the United States and abroad and various security, human rights, social and environmental indicators. The GAO must also report on how the current pacts measure up to the bill’s criteria with respect to what must and must not be included in trade pacts. What Must and Must Not Be in All Agreements: The bill contains a detailed description of the key provisions that must be included in all future U.S. trade agreements and what aspects of the current model must never again be replicated to ensure that trade pacts provide broader benefits. It sets forth the environmental and labor, food and product safety, agriculture, trade remedy, human rights, federalism safeguard and currency anti-manipulation rules and national security exceptions that must be included in all U.S. trade pacts. This section also lists what aspects of the NAFTA-WTO model cannot be included in future deals, including bans on Buy American and anti-sweat shop or environmental procurement policies; new rights and privileges for foreign investors to promote offshoring and expose domestic health and environmental laws to attacks in foreign tribunals; service sector privatization and deregulation requirements; and special protections for Big Pharma to limit affordable access to drugs. This section comprises over half of the bill, given that today trade pacts extend far beyond traditional trade matters to cover so many different essential policy topics that are the crux of Congress’ domestic agenda - from access to essential services such as health care and education to regulation of financial services to medicine patents to investment, procurement and local development policy to procurement and food and product safety policy. Renegotiation: The bill requires the President to submit a plan to address through renegotiation the gaps identified between our current major pacts and the criteria for what must and must not be included in U.S. trade agreements. The bill establishes a special congressional super committee chaired by the Ways and Means and Finance Committee chairs to work with the President on formulating this plan. The super committee also includes a role for the chairs and ranking members of other committees whose core jurisdiction is directly affected by today’s expansive trade pacts. Replacing Fast Track: The bill lays out criteria for a new mechanism to replace the anti-democratic Fast Track negotiating process. To obtain agreements that benefit a wider array of interests, this new process includes Congress setting readiness criteria to select future negotiating partners; mandatory negotiating objectives based on the bill’s criteria of what must be and must not be in future trade pacts; and the requirements that Congress must certify that the objectives were met, and then vote on an agreement before it can be signed. These criteria have been supported in AFL-CIO, Change to Win and National Farmers Union resolutions. Support for the 2009 TRADE Act:
Original Cosponsors of the TRADE Act: 1. Abercrombie, Neil 2. Altmire, Jason 3. Arcuri, Michael 4. Baca, Joe 5. Baldwin, Tammy 6. Bocceri, John 7. Boswell, Leonard 8. Brady, Robert 9. Braley, Bruce 10. Capuano, Michael 11. Carnahan, Russ 12. Carney, Christopher 13. Carson, André 14. Chandler, Ben 15. Childers, Travis 16. Cleaver, Emanuel 17. Cohen, Steve 18. Conyers, John 19. Costello, Jerry 20. Cummings, Elijah 21. Dahlkemper, Kathy 22. DeFazio, Peter 23. Delahunt, William 24. DeLauro, Rosa 25. Dingell, John 26. Doyle, Mike 27. Edwards, Donna 28. Ellison, Keith 29. Filner, Bob 30. Fudge, Marcia 31. Gordon, Bart 32. Grayson, Alan 33. Green, Al 34. Green, Gene 35. Grijalva, Raúl 36. Gutierrez, Luis 37. Hall, John 38. Hare, Phil 39. Hastings, Alcee 40. Hinchey, Maurice 41. Hirono, Mazie 42. Holden, Tim 43. Holt, Rush 44. Jackson Jr., Jesse 45. Jackson-Lee, Sheila 46. Johnson, Hank 47. Jones, Walter 48. Kagen, Steve 49. Kanjorski, Paul 50. Kaptur, Marcy 51. Kildee, Dale 52. Kilpatrick, Carolyn 53. Kilroy, Mary 54. Kissell, Larry 55. Kucinich, Dennis 56. Langevin, James 57. Lee, Barbara 58. Lipinski, Daniel 59. Loebsack, David 60. Lynch, Stephen 61. Massa, Eric 62. McCollum, Betty 63. McGovern, James 64. McIntyre, Mike 65. Michaud, Michael (sponsor) 66. Mollohan, Alan 67. Moore, Gwen 68. Murphy, Patrick 69. Murtha, John 70. Nadler, Jerrold 71. Napolitano, Grace 72. Norton, Eleanor Holmes 73. Oberstar, James 74. Pallone, Frank 75. Payne, Donald 76. Perriello, Tom 77. Peters, Gary 78. Peterson, Collin 79. Pingree, Chellie 80. Rahall, Nick 81. Ross, Mike 82. Rothman, Steven 83. Roybal-Allard, Lucille 84. Ryan, Tim 85. Sarbanes, John 86. Schakowsky, Jan 87. Schauer, Mark 88. Scott, Bobby 89. Shea-Porter, Carol 90. Sherman, Brad 91. Shuler, Heath 92. Slaughter, Louise 93. Smith, Chris 94. Spratt, John 95. Stupak, Bart 96. Sutton, Betty 97. Tierney, John 98. Tonko, Paul 99. Visclosky, Peter 100. Walz, Tim 101. Wasserman-Schultz, Debbie 102. Waters, Maxine 103. Welch, Peter 104. Wilson, Charlie 105. Woolsey, Lynn 106. Wu, David |