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1.
Commit to strengthening
Congress’s role in trade policy, by replacing the Fast Track negotiating
process with a new system that includes readiness criteria to determine
appropriate negotiating partners; binding obligations regarding what must and
must not be in future trade agreements; the right of prior informed consent
for states before they are bound to non-trade, investment, service sector and
procurement rules in trade agreements; and the right for Congress to vote
before agreements are signed.
2.
Commit
that all agreements negotiated under their presidency would meet the following
criteria:
a.
Trade agreements must
incorporate requirements to adopt into domestic law and enforce the five basic
internationally-recognized core labor rights as stated in the eight
fundamental International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions dealing with
freedom of association; the right to organize and bargain collectively; the
elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor; the effective
abolition of child labor; the elimination of the worst forms of child labor;
and the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
Failing to meet such standards must be subject to the same dispute resolution
and enforcement mechanisms and penalties that apply to the commercial
provisions of the trade agreements.
b.
Trade
agreements must allow nations to follow environmental, health and safety
standards adopted in reliance on the precautionary principle, recognizing the
legitimate rights of governments to protect public health, safety and the
environment. Trade agreements must incorporate requirements to adopt into
domestic law and enforce the major Multilateral Environmental Agreements,
which comprise the global consensus on basic environmental protection. Failing
to meet such standards must be subject to the same dispute resolution and
enforcement mechanisms and penalties that apply to the commercial provisions
of the trade agreements.
c.
Foreign investors must not
be given the right to sue governments directly under trade agreements. The
investor privileges included in most trade agreements expose our domestic
environmental, public health, zoning and other public interest laws to
potential challenge by foreign corporations in secret tribunals. Trade
agreements must not allow private investors and corporations to compel
governments to pay compensation for the costs of complying with laws,
regulations, or other policies to protect the public welfare.
d.
Trade agreements must not
limit our ability to ensure that both imported and domestic products meet US
safety standards, nor should they limit the rate of border inspection of
imported goods.
e.
Trade
agreements should not require the privatization or deregulation of essential
services, including education, health care, construction, transportation,
water supply and energy.
f.
Procurement provisions in
trade agreements must not undermine the ability of federal and state
governments to use tax dollars to create and maintain good jobs, to promote
economic opportunity and development, and to achieve other important social
goals, including safeguarding prevailing wage, renewable energy, and recycled
content.
g.
Trade
agreements must allow citizens in America and elsewhere to regain control of
farm and food policy with the intent of creating a sustainable family farm
system and a safe and healthy food supply. No trade agreement should impede
the right of America, or other nations, to devise farm and food policy that
establishes fair farm prices, creates a food security reserve, establishes
conservation set-asides to avoid wasteful overproduction, makes loans to help
farmers own their own land and adopt sustainable farming practices, and meets
other social and environmental goals.
h.
Trade agreements must not
undermine U.S. trade laws, including the ability of governments to safeguard
domestic industries against market surges and unfair foreign trade practices,
such as predatory pricing, currency manipulation, and export dumping. Trade
agreements should not prevent governments from regulating the flow of
speculative capital.
i.
Trade
agreements must not impede nations’ ability to make affordable
pharmaceuticals available to their residents. Provisions in international
agreements (including trade agreements) concerning intellectual property
rights must recognize and reaffirm that profits from pharmaceutical and
biotechnology products should be shared equitably with nations providing the
genetic resources upon which such biotechnology products are derived. Trade
agreements should also recognize that nations may regulate genetically
modified organisms to address food supply and biodiversity conservation.
3.
Commit to review and
assess NAFTA and other bilateral trade agreements, particularly their impact
on our jobs, wages, working conditions, environment, consumer safety and
democratic protections. Such a review must include recommendations on how to
address problems in existing agreements, up to and including renegotiation.
4.
Commit to oppose the
current direction of the WTO “Doha Round” and to call for a new direction
in global trade talks to prioritize protections for workers, the poor, health
and the environment, and to ensure that global trade rules do not undermine
the ability of governments to regulate in the public interest.
5.
Commit
to strengthen and effectively enforce U.S. trade laws to protect U.S. jobs and
our manufacturing base.
6.
Commit
to implementing emergency policies to bring our trade deficit into balance,
including by addressing currency manipulation, eliminating tax breaks for
offshoring production, and exploring other options, such as an import
surcharge.
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