37,000 Oregon Jobs at Risk Under Proposed Korean Trade Pact

Posted on January 25, 2011 by CTC

For Immediate Release
January 25, 2011

STATE OF THE UNION RESPONSE:
Analysis of Government Data Shows 37,000 Oregon Jobs at Risk Under Proposed Korean Trade Pact
Federal Study Finds that Good-Paying Jobs in Electronics and Manufacturing Sectors Are Among the Most Threatened by the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement

PORTLAND, Ore. — Approximately 37,000 Oregonians work in industries that a U.S. government study identifies as at risk of being offshored should a proposed trade pact with South Korea be enacted.  President Barack Obama called on Congress to quickly ratify the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) during his State of the Union address.  According the federal government’s U.S. International Trade Commission, the proposed trade agreement will increase the U.S. global trade deficit, which will negatively affect employment in industries prevalent in the Pacific Northwest.

“With our official unemployment rate over 10 percent, Oregon simply cannot afford another job-killing trade agreement,” said Arthur Stamoulis, director of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign.  “It’s hard to believe that politicians would even consider supporting a trade deal that’s expected to increase the deficit and cost the country jobs, let alone one that’s being billed as the largest free trade agreement since NAFTA.”

Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect in 1994, the U.S. Labor Department has certified 51,176 individual Oregon jobs as lost to either direct offshoring or displacement by imports.  This figure is almost certainly low, given that service-sector jobs shipped overseas were not typically counted in the data set until mid-way through 2009.  In terms of volume of trade, the Korea FTA is the largest pact of its type since NAFTA.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC), the independent federal agency tasked with estimating the likely economic effects of trade agreements, predicts that implementation of the Korea FTA would lead to an increase in the overall U.S. goods trade deficit.  The USITC also indicates that jobs are likely to be lost in high-wage industries such as electronic equipment, motor vehicles and parts, and other transportation equipment, with deficits for these sectors totaling up to $1.8 billion.  The average hourly earnings of workers in the electronics industry, which is projected to lose a significant number of jobs, were $30.38 in 2008.  This was 40.5 percent greater than the average hourly earnings of all workers employed in the private sector.

There are 36,999 Oregonians employed in sectors of the economy that the USITC has identified as most at risk under the Korea FTA.  This includes 9,801 in metal products manufacturing; 9,543 in electronics; 7,163 in motor vehicles and parts; 6,190 in other transportation equipment; 1,648 in textiles; 1,630 in iron-containing metal work; and 1,531 in apparel.

“Finding a family-wage job is already hard enough without our elected officials making it even harder.  If the Korea trade agreement moves forward as planned, our state will lose thousands more good-paying jobs,” said Stamoulis.  “This isn’t the time for elected officials to be cutting sweetheart deals for Wall Street that come at the expense of the American middle class.  Senator Wyden and our U.S. Representatives should speak out firmly against the Korea FTA before it’s too late.”

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden chairs the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on International Trade, and could play an important role in determining whether or not the Korea FTA passes.  In town hall events across the state last week, the Senator said that he is still undecided on the trade deal.

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The Oregon Fair Trade Campaign (ORFTC) is a statewide coalition of labor, environmental and human rights organizations working together to improve trade policy.

For a PDF of ORFTC’s reporter memo titled “Studies on Potential Economic Effects of Korea Trade Pact Show Rising U.S. Deficits and Job Losses,” please email media@oregonfairtrade.org.

Posted in Korea FTA, Oregon Jobs Lost | Comments Off on 37,000 Oregon Jobs at Risk Under Proposed Korean Trade Pact

The Oregon Stories Project

Posted on December 14, 2010 by CTC

Approximately 74,500 Oregonians have lost jobs under NAFTA-style free trade deals. ORFTC has conducted one-on-one interviews with approximately 150 Oregon residents whose livelihoods have been adversely affected by offshoring, increased imports and/or dumping. Visit our Stories Project page for:

  • The ORFTC reports “Livelihoods Traded Away” and “Faces of Free Trade and Job Loss,” which outline trends across the state based on our interviews.
  • A searchable directory of audio clips from some of the Stories Project’s most powerful interviews.
  • Information on how you can share your story with an ORFTC staff member or volunteer.

 

Posted in Oregon Jobs Lost | Comments Off on The Oregon Stories Project

Oregon Legislators Warn of Trade Deal’s Threat to State Sovereignty

Posted on August 31, 2010 by CTC

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, August 31, 2010

 Bipartisan Group of Legislators Ask Sen. Wyden to Defend Oregon Laws from Attack in International Tribunals
The Korea Free Trade Agreement Poses Serious Threat to State Sovereignty

Salem, Ore. — A bipartisan group of Oregon State Legislators sent U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) a letter today urging him to use his position as chair of the Senate Subcommittee on International Trade to strip provisions from a pending trade agreement that threaten to expose Oregon laws to attack in international tribunals.

According to the letter, the pending Korea Free Trade Agreement “includes investor-to-state enforcement mechanisms that enable foreign corporations to directly challenge American laws, regulations and even court decisions as trade violations through international tribunals that completely circumvent the U.S. judicial system.”

Similar provisions in past trade agreements have been used to attack environmental, food safety and other public interest laws.  As the letter points out, “provisions in the Korea FTA pose a much greater threat than similar language included in pacts with smaller, developing countries, in that South Korea is a capital-exporting nation with significant investments throughout the United States.”

Korean-owned businesses operating in Oregon in recent years have included a semiconductor plant, an animal feed processor and shipping companies.  If the trade agreement passes as written, these and other Korean-owned businesses would be granted special privileges to initiate “regulatory takings” challenges of federal, state and local laws — privileges that are not extended to U.S. businesses or citizens operating in Oregon.

“The Bush-negotiated trade pact with South Korea poses a real threat to Oregon’s environmental and land use laws, as well as to basic principles of democracy,” said Arthur Stamoulis, director of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign.  “Senator Wyden should use his influence to insist that these harmful and unnecessary provisions be removed from the Korea proposal and any future trade agreement.”

The Korea Free Trade Agreement was negotiated and signed by the Bush administration in 2007, but the Bush White House was never able to get it through Congress.  Despite speaking against it on the campaign trail, President Obama recently announced plans to press forward with the trade pact after the November election.

A complete copy of the letter and list of signers follows:

The Honorable Ron Wyden
United States Senate
223 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC  20510-3703

August 31, 2010

Re: State Sovereignty and the Korea Free Trade Agreement

Dear Senator Wyden:

The pending Korea Free Trade Agreement includes extraordinary rights for foreign investors that, if enacted, threaten to expose Oregon laws to attack in international tribunals.  These provisions are unnecessary and unfair, and we ask that you use your position as Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on International Trade to help strip them from the agreement before it moves forward.

Like several trade pacts before it, the Korea FTA includes investor-to-state enforcement mechanisms that enable foreign corporations to directly challenge American laws, regulations and even court decisions as trade violations through international tribunals that completely circumvent the U.S. judicial system.  These tribunals routinely hear “regulatory takings” cases that would be thrown out of the U.S. courts — and are even used to attack laws that are applied equally to both foreign and domestic firms.

The investor-to-state provisions in the Korea FTA pose a much greater threat than similar language included in pacts with smaller, developing countries, in that South Korea is a capital-exporting nation with significant investments throughout the United States.  In recent years, this has included businesses such as a semiconductor plant, an animal feed processor and a shipping company here in Oregon.

The only other capital-exporting nation the United States has signed a similar agreement with is Canada.  It’s worth noting that Canadian firms have filed multiple cases challenging state and federal laws under the North American Free Trade Agreement, with billions of dollars in outstanding cases still awaiting final decisions.  Even cases the United States successfully defended against required significant expenditures of taxpayer dollars in order to fight them.

The argument often made in support of including investor-to-state provisions in pacts with developing countries — that their court systems are too corrupt for U.S. investors to receive a fair shake — does not hold water in the case of South Korea, which has a stable court system and firmly-established rule of law.  There is absolutely no reason to put Oregon’s laws at jeopardy under international tribunals, nor to grant foreign corporations greater rights than our own domestic businesses.

The U.S. Trade Representative should have heeded the National Conference of State Legislatures’ advice to “exclude an investor-state dispute provision from the U.S.-Korea investment chapter” back during the initial negotiations.  Now that the Korea FTA must be renegotiated, the precedent set by the Australia Free Trade Agreement, in which investor-to-state provisions were left out altogether, should be included as a solid requirement.

We look forward to your leadership on this issue, and thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

Rep. Michael Dembrow (D-45)
Rep. Brad Witt (D-31)
Rep. Kim Thatcher (R-25)
Rep. Brian Clem (D-21)
Rep. Peter Buckley (D-5)
Sen. Diane Rosenbaum (D-21)
Sen. Chip Shields (D-22)
Rep. Paul Holvey (D-8)
Sen. Jackie Dingfelder (D-23)
Sen. Brian J. Boquist (R-12)
Rep. Val Hoyle (D-14)

CC: U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley
Congressman David Wu
Congressman Greg Walden
Congressman Earl Blumenauer
Congressman Peter DeFazio
Congressman Kurt Schrader
Ambassador Ron Kirk

Posted in Korea FTA, Legislation, Oregon representatives | Comments Off on Oregon Legislators Warn of Trade Deal’s Threat to State Sovereignty

Displaced Workers Call for Trade and Immigration Reform

Posted on July 6, 2010 by CTC

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Local Labor Leaders and Displaced Workers Call for Trade and Immigration Reform, Quality Job Creation
New Study Finds Trade-Related Job Loss on the Rise and a Significant Factor in Oregon’s High Unemployment Rate

SPRINGFIELD, OR — Displaced workers, union leaders, as well as immigrant rights and fair trade advocates will gather at 12pm on Tue., July 6, at Woodworker’s Hall in Springfield, the meeting place of the Lane County Labor Council, to release a new analysis of U.S. Labor Department data indicating the significance of trade-related job loss in Oregon’s high unemployment rate. Over the past four quarters, Oregon lost 10,000 jobs as the result of trade policies, which is more than one quarter of total jobs losses during that period.

The data also show a disturbing trend, with Oregon having more trade-related job lossesin 2009 than any other year on record. The first quarter of this year does not look much better. According to the report, four companies in Springfield and two in Eugene were certified under the Trade Adjustment Assistance program in 2009.

Data for the new study released by the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign came from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program. The TAA program provides extended unemployment and job retraining benefits for workers whose jobs are certified by the Department as having been lost due to trade, either through direct offshoring or displacement by imports. Because TAA is difficult to pursue and qualify for, and many workers never even find out about it, the data provides only a conservative estimate of the true number of jobs lost due to trade. Changes in eligibility for the TAA program effected in mid-2009 also suggest that the previous years’ trade-related job losses were actually higher than the data set shows. Read the full report online at:https://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/oregon/files/2010/06/JobLossReport.pdf

Ed Gunderson lost his job to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 2003. Gunderson was the last U.S. employee of Plastmo, Inc., a small vinyl manufacturer formerly located in Springfield, which moved all of its jobs to its facility in Canada. Having helped two coworkers, most of whom were displaced in 1998, qualify for TAA, Gunderson himself was left empty-handed. He has since become a volunteer Secretary of the Lane Branch of Industrial Workers of the World.”We are told by our government that the wars we are involved in are to protect the American Way of Life and preserve the ‘American Dream,’ yet we allow and even encourage business owners to move production and services out of the country, said Gunderson. “This is economic war against American workers, and the government sanctions it through NAFTA and other treaties, destroying the livelihoods of thousands if not millions of workers.”

The Lane County Fair Trade Campaign (LCFTC), a local alliance, is continuing to press Sen. Ron Wyden, who sits on a key committee in Congress, to support trade the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act. Congressman Peter DeFazio and Sen. Jeff Merkley already support the bill.

In June, the alliance held a forum explaining how the TRADE Act would re-empower local communities at home and abroad in terms of food security. But “the TRADE Act would affect far more than food,” said Samantha Chirillo, Organizer of the LCFTC alliance. “As comprehensive trade reform legislation currently pending in Congress, it would help level the playing field for local employers by establishing strong new labor, environmental and consumer safety standards in future and existing trade agreements.”

The LCFTC also points to the TRADE Act as a model for new trade agreements, like the one with South Korea that is currently being moved forward by the Obama Administration and Congress.

“Most blue collar jobs are gone as the result corporations pursuing cheaper labor overseas,” said Wes Shirley, External Relations Committee Chair, Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, Local #3544. “Now we’re seeing service sector jobs, including IT, leave, as well.Job loss from free trade has chipped away at our economy to the extent that it’s literally crumbling. Virtually no one is unaffected by NAFTA-like trade agreements that have made everything and everyone cheap and expendable.”

Guadalupe Quinn, Immigrant Rights Advocacy Program Coordinator with Amigos, points out that trade adjustment assistance is not an option for immigrants to the U.S., who are first forced out of their own country by the poverty inflicted by unfair “free trade,” and then become displaced. “More importantly,” says Quinn, “forced migration has driven down farm workers’ wages in the United States – and indirectly, all wages – as relatively cheap immigrant labor competes in the domestic labor market. While some resent recent immigrants, our economy has become depend on immigrant labor.” Quinn noted that the UFW have launched a “Take Our Jobs” campaign in California to encourage more public involvement in local food production.

“In addition to the TRADE Act, we need comprehensive immigration reform, including citizenship for the 12 million documented immigrants now in the United States, and protection of worker civil rights and liberties,” insists Quinn.LCFTC and ESSN/Jobs with Justice alliances support comprehensive immigration reform.

John Evans,Co-Chair of Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network/Jobs with Justice, says “It’s clear from this dismal report that we need to pass the TRADE Act. But we also need the creation of living-wage jobs that build long-term community resilience, rather than through attracting big businesses or implementing short-term fixes.” ESSN/Jobs with Justice is currently working for better labor standards at the local level, in part through ESSN’s Community Standards Campaign to increase wages for City of Eugene employees.

Speaking at the news conference will be Ed Gunderson, NAFTA victim and volunteer Secretary, Lane Branch of Industrial Workers of the World; Linda Peterson, President of AFSCME Local #3214 and Board Member of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign; Guadalupe Quinn, Immigrant Rights Advocacy Program Coordinator, Amigos; John Evans, Co-Chair of Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network/Jobs with Justice; local union member James Jacobson; Wes Shirley, External Relations Committee Chair, Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, Local #3544; and Samantha Chirillo, Lane County Organizer of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign. All groups mentioned are involved in the Lane County Fair Trade Campaign.

Posted in Oregon Jobs Lost, Trade Act | Comments Off on Displaced Workers Call for Trade and Immigration Reform

Statement on Rep. Schrader’s Support for the Korea Free Trade Agreement

Posted on July 3, 2010 by CTC

For Immediate Release
Thursday, July 8, 2010

BUSINESS & POLITICS:
Statement on Congressman Schrader and the Obama Administration’s Support for the Korea Free Trade Agreement
by Arthur Stamoulis, Director, Oregon Fair Trade Campaign

“The Bush administration negotiated and signed the Korea Free Trade Agreement three years ago, but was never able to get it through Congress.  There’s no way voters will put up with Congress passing this job-killing trade deal now.

“This is an old-model trade pact that dwarfs anything President Bush was able to get pass during his eight years in office.  The U.S International Trade Commission and others predict the Korea agreement will increase the trade deficit, and we have no doubt it will end up costing Oregon high-tech jobs at a time when the state can least afford to lose them.

“Congressman Schrader has angered his constituents by speaking out in support of Bush-negotiated trade deals that will cost his district jobs.  We want to make sure the Obama administration doesn’t head down that same dangerous path.

“In May 2008, then-Senator Obama told us through a candidate questionnaire that he opposed the Korea Free Trade Agreement and that he would support a range of important trade policy reforms if elected president.  Introducing the Korea Free Trade Agreement as written would represent the complete polar opposite of those campaign commitments.

“Oregon needs jobs, not job-killing trade deals.  This state simply cannot afford any more business-as-usual trade pacts that force local employers to compete with companies taking advantage of lower labor and environmental costs overseas.  The sooner our elected officials get that message, the better off everyone will be.”

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BACKGROUND: On June 26, President Obama announced that he plans to introduce the Bush-negotiated Korea Free Trade Agreement for a vote in Congress after the upcoming elections — something freshman Congressman Kurt Schrader has been encouraging him to do.  Labor leaders, fair trade advocates and the unemployed held a picket today outside a fundraising reception for Congressman Schrader featuring Vice President Joe Biden, the highest-ranking Obama administration official to visit the state since taking office.

President Obama’s completed candidate questionnaire for the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign is online at: https://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/oregon/files/2011/12/ObamaResponse.pdf

Posted in Free Trade Agreements, Korea FTA, Oregon representatives | Comments Off on Statement on Rep. Schrader’s Support for the Korea Free Trade Agreement

Study Reveals Record Trade-Related Job Loss in Oregon

Posted on June 29, 2010 by CTC

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, June 29, 2010

NEW STUDY:
Trade-Related Job Loss a Significant Factor in Oregon’s High Unemployment Rate
Labor Department Data Suggests More Than a Quarter of the Past Year’s Job Losses Were Due to Trade Policies

OREGON CITY, Ore. — Displaced workers, union leaders and fair trade advocates gathered outside the Blue Heron paper mill today to release a new analysis of U.S. Labor Department data indicating the significance of trade-related job loss in Oregon’s high unemployment rate. Laid-off Blue Heron employees certified this month by the federal government for “Trade Adjustment Assistance” are among nearly 10,000 Oregonians who have lost jobs due to either direct offshoring or competition from imports over the past four quarters.

“The Labor Department certified more trade-related job losses in Oregon in 2009 than any other year on record, and the first quarter of this year didn’t look much better,” said Arthur Stamoulis, Director of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign, which published the study. “Oregon’s middle class just isn’t safe so long as trade policies enable local jobs to be easily shipped overseas.”

Among other things, the new study found that:

  • Trade-related job loss accounted for a major portion of Oregon’s overall job losses over the past year. Between March 2009 and March 2010, 9,955 Oregonians were certified by Labor Department as losing their jobs to trade. This number is 26.6% of the net 37,400 Oregon jobs lost over that time period.
  • Trade-related job loss also accounts for a significant portion of Oregon’s ongoing unemployment problem. The 46,959 total Oregon jobs certified as having been lost to trade during the “NAFTA era” of January 1994 to December 2009 are the equivalent of 2.95% of the state’s current total employment — or 22.6% of the state’s total unemployment. For technical reasons pertaining to the data pool, only a fraction of the Oregon jobs lost to direct offshoring or competition from imports are even counted in these figures.
  • For a variety of reasons, 2009 was an unprecedented year for trade-related job losses certified by the Labor Department. The 9,457 Oregon workers certified as losing their jobs to trade in 2009 was 322% higher than the average number of workers certified each year between 1994 and 2009.

“This state is outright hemorrhaging jobs due to backwards trade policies enacted by Congress,” said Gregory Pallesen, Vice President of the Association of Western Pulp & Paper Workers (AWPPW), the union representing workers at Blue Heron. “The only way we’re going to stem the flow of jobs is if our elected officials get serious about trade policy reform.”

The Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment Act — or TRADE Act, for short — is comprehensive trade reform legislation currently pending in Congress. The TRADE Act would help level the playing field for local employers, by establishing strong new labor, environmental and consumer safety standards in future and existing trade agreements.

“Oregonians keeping losing jobs because Congress hasn’t seen fit to fix the broken trade policies that force companies like Blue Heron to compete with imports from countries with sweatshop working conditions and lax environmental rules,” said Stamoulis. “The best way to prevent more trade-related layoffs is for Congress to pass the TRADE Act.”

Data for the new study came from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program. The TAA program provides workers whose jobs are certified by the Department as being lost due to trade — either through direct offshoring or displacement by imports — with extended unemployment and job retraining benefits.

Because someone must take the affirmative step of submitting a worksite for TAA certification, TAA data only offers a conservative estimate of the true number of jobs lost due to trade. Likewise, changes in eligibility for the TAA program that took effect mid-2009 suggests that previous years’ trade-related job losses were actually higher than the data set suggests. These eligibility requirements account in part for the comparatively high number of certifications in 2009, but the data suggests that the year would have been exceptionally high even under the old eligibility rules.

For more information, read the full report online.

Posted in Oregon Jobs Lost | Comments Off on Study Reveals Record Trade-Related Job Loss in Oregon

Pacific Rim Trade Deal an Opportunity to Advance Campaign Promises

Posted on June 14, 2010 by CTC

For Immediate Release
June 14, 2010

BUSINESS:
New Pacific Rim Trade Deal an Opportunity for White House to Advance Campaign Promises
Fair Trade Advocates Urge “New Deal or No Deal” as the U.S. Plays Host to Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Negotiations This Week

SAN FRANCISCO — As trade negotiators representing the United States and seven other Pacific Rim nations met in San Francisco today for a week of talks on a new “Trans-Pacific Partnership” (TPP) trade pact, fair trade advocates from Oregon were present to urge the U.S. delegation to use the TPP as opportunity to advance the President’s campaign pledges on trade reform.

“On the campaign trail, President Obama repeatedly spoke about the need for significant trade policy reforms,” said Arthur Stamoulis, director of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign, a statewide coalition of labor, environmental and human rights organizations.  “We were excited by the President’s promises to change the public procurement, investor rights, consumer safety, agricultural dumping, labor and environmental provisions in future trade agreements, and we hope he’ll fight for those changes in the TPP.”

In May 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama answered a detailed candidate questionnaire from the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign explaining his views on needed trade policy reforms.  A PDF of his responses is available online at: https://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/oregon/files/2011/12/ObamaResponse.pdf

Many of the President’s campaign promises are addressed in comprehensive trade reform legislation called the TRADE Act (HR.3012/S.2821), currently cosponsored by a majority of House Democrats including Congressmen David Wu and Peter DeFazio, as well as Senator Jeff Merkley.  The Oregon Fair Trade Campaign has urged the White House to use the TRADE Act’s provisions as its negotiating objectives for the TPP.

“The United States already has Free Trade Agreements with a majority of its TPP negotiating partners, including those with the largest economies.  As such, the TPP isn’t about opening new markets and there’s really no excuse for this agreement to move forward without it being done right,” said Stamoulis.  “The Trans-Pacific Partnership is an opportunity to build consensus around a new model for international trade.  If that ball gets dropped, so should the TPP.”

Posted in Candidates on Trade, TPP | Comments Off on Pacific Rim Trade Deal an Opportunity to Advance Campaign Promises

Food Security, Immigration and “Free Trade”

Posted on June 1, 2010 by CTC

For Immediate Release
June 1, 2010

Public Forum
Food Security, Immigration, and ‘Free Trade:’ Putting Justice Back on the Table
A panel discussion and public forum on making trade work for people in Lane County

EUGENE – At 7pm on June 9, 2010, the community will gather in Harris Hall (125 E. 8th Ave.) to explain how “free trade” agreements affect the economy, demographics, and food security of Lane County and share ideas for achieving trade reform that benefits the people and the land. The event is organized by the Lane County Fair Trade Campaign (LCFTC), a new local alliance of individuals and organizations building cross-issue solidarity for just and sustainable U.S. trade policy with environmental and economic benefits at home and abroad.

“Unfair trade policies, like the North American and Central American Free Trade Agreements (NAFTA and CAFTA), and institutions like the World Trade Organization have been destabilizing local economies and disadvantaging family farmers, both here and abroad, over the past decade,” says Samantha Chirillo, Lane County Organizer of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign, convenor of the Lane County alliance. “The increasing rate of job offshoring, soaring unemployment rate, Oregon’s ranking as the second most hungry state in the U.S., and rising food transport costs demand our immediate attention and action.

Guadalupe Quinn,  Immigrant Rights Advocacy Program Coordinator with Amigos and panelist at the forum, explains the link between trade agreements and migration of people from Latin American communities to our own: “The U.S., via its unfair trade policies, has crushed family farmers in Mexico to the extent that their unemployment, poverty, and hunger rates are far worse than our own. We can expect more socioeconomic refugees until we improve the situation abroad.

Dan Armstrong, another panelist with Mud City Press and the Southern Willamette Valley Bean and Grain Project, points out that “trade agreements have pumped up large agricultural operations while deflating family farmers and have increased our exploitation of and dependency on immigrant farmworkers. With these trends and a shifting climate and fuel economy, we’re swimming against the tide. Even so, in Lane and Benton counties we’re making significant progress to restore local food security and, thereby, community resiliency.

“Fortunately we have trade reform legislation that is building momentum in Congress,” says Arthur Stamoulis, statewide Organizer of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign. “With growing support for the the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment Act (TRADE Act), which would level the playing field in the agricultural and other industries, we have an opportunity to restore stability to communities in Oregon.”

Robert Roth, a retired lawyer and participant in LCFTC, noted that U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and U.S. Reps. Peter DeFazio and David Wu are already co-sponsors of the TRADE Act.

“This is one of the most important pieces of legislation in the Congress right now, to save the middle class, for all working families, and for both the manufacturing and agricultural sectors,” said Roth. “We’re hopeful [U.S. Senator] Ron Wyden and the rest of the Oregon Congressional Delegation will join us on this one soon.”

Event co-sponsors include LCFTC members: the Immigrant Rights Advocacy Program (Amigos), Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network/Jobs with Justice, the Lane Branch of Industrial Workers of the World and the Latin America Solidarity Committee. The LCFTC welcomes new groups and individuals to get involved via its gatherings every second Monday of the month at 5:30pm in the AFSCME Bldg at 7th & Charnelton.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Food Security, Immigration and “Free Trade”

“Merkley Amendment” on International Preemption of Insurance Regulations

Posted on April 29, 2010 by CTC

For Immediate Release
April 29, 2010

Statement on the “Merkely Amendment” to Protect Financial Regulations from International Preemption
by Arthur Stamoulis, Director, Oregon Fair Trade Campaign

“Americans want better oversight of the financial industry, but a provision hidden in the Senate’s 1200-page financial reform bill actually promotes new deregulation.

“The Senate’s financial reform bill grants a newly-created Office of National Insurance with the power to enter into international financial service agreements without Congressional approval, and to determine which state insurance regulations are preempted by these agreements.

“Never before has Congress granted a federal agency the right to unilaterally set U.S. trade policy.

This deregulatory measure is truly astounding, and could have a profound effect on both state sovereignty and the financial stability of the nation. The last thing we need is the meltdown that hit the big banks spreading into state-regulated insurance operations.

“Thankfully, freshman Senator Jeff Merkley has crafted an amendment to remove this egregious provision from the financial reform bill. The Merkley amendment has the potential to head off a disaster in the making.

“Many elected officials have turned a blind eye to the deregulatory financial measures in World Trade Organization pacts and other international trade agreements. Oregon is lucky to have a Senator more interested in the economic health of the state and the nation than in the commercial interests of foreign insurance providers. Hopefully, the Merkley measure will pass and the reform debate can continue.”

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Background Documents:
Letter from Public Citizen, U.S. PIRG and Consumer Watchdog
Letter from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners
Resolution by the National Conference of State Legislators
Letter from the National Conference of Insurance Legislators

Posted in Oregon representatives | Comments Off on “Merkley Amendment” on International Preemption of Insurance Regulations