Washington,
Nov 8, 2007 -
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) stood up for American workers today and voted against the United States-Peru Free Trade Agreement in an attempt to keep good-paying jobs in the United States.
“The U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement continues the destructive trade policies that spur the exodus of good-paying jobs and undermine the ability of working people to protect their living standards,” Kucinich said.
“Our workers in our communities have been hurt by the devastating impact of our flawed trade policies. Since 2001, more than 3 million valuable manufacturing jobs have been lost by U.S. workers due to the unsound NAFTA model for trade, analogous to the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement.
“The Bush Administration insists on continuing to implement the same policies that have off-shored jobs and left hard-working Americans in precarious circumstances.
“As corporations cut U.S. jobs and relocate in search of lower labor costs, the U.S.-Peru FTA threatens to expand sweatshop labor in Peru and cast doubt on the adequate enforcement of worker protections. In a company already fraught by high poverty levels and a growing gap between the wealthy and the poor, the U.S.-Peru FTA will further exasperate Peru’s difficulties with provisions that ultimately promote privatization and deregulation of basic necessities such as water and electricity.
“I cannot and will not support a harmful trade agreement that threatens the livelihood of millions of hard-working Americans.”
Kucinich, who has an outstanding voting record on keeping jobs in the United States and standing up for workers’ rights and environmental protections. • Kucinich voted twice to disapprove extension of special trade privileges to China; • Kucinich voted to provide $1 million for the U.S. Trade Representative to study the impact of multilateral trade agreements on U.S. labor and environmental standards; • Kucinich voted not to grant China Permanent Normal Trade Relation with the United States; • Kucinich voted twice not to pass a bill that would have extended NAFTA treatment to 26 Caribbean and Latin American countries; • Kucinich voted three times not to grant “fast track” trade authority that would have allowed the President to unilaterally determine trade policy and make agreements that require changes to U.S. laws without meaningful input from Congress or the American people; • Kucinich voted twice against African Trade bills, which would condition trade relations with sub-Saharan Africa on mandatory economic changes guaranteeing access for transnational corporations to Africa’s natural resources and market; • Kucinich offered and voted for an amendment to forbid the use of any federal funds to enforce WTO and NAFTA rulings against local and state laws; • Kucinich voted against a bilateral “free trade agreement” that effectively extended the failed NAFTA to Chile; • Kucinich voted against a bilateral “free trade agreement” that effectively extended the failed NAFTA to the Asian dictatorship of Singapore; • Kucinich voted against a bilateral “free trade agreement” negotiated by the Bush Administration that effectively extended the failed NAFTA to Australia; • Kucinich voted against a trade agreement replicating the failed NAFTA and CAFTA models with Oman; • Kucinich voted against expanding NAFTA to Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.
