NAFTA: Rep. Warns Congress not to flip-flop on Fast Track Pk

[Oscar]

Representative Who "Deeply Regrets" NAFTA Vote Warns Congress Not to Flip-Flop on Fast Track

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Posted: 16 Jun 2015 02:18 PM PDT

Today the House of Representatives narrowly passed a procedural rule, inserted into an unrelated legislative package last night, that gives defenders of the unpopular status quo trade model six weeks to try to revive the Fast Track package that was put on life support last Friday. They will not succeed so long as they continue to face the wall of dogged, diverse grassroots pressure that delivered Friday´s landmark fair trade victory.

Even so, the Obama administration and congressional proponents of more-of-the-same trade deals will try to badger the many members of Congress who voted down the Fast Track package into switching their votes. They will likely reiterate the tired litany of false promises that members of Congress and the U.S. public have heard time and again when being sold unpopular trade pacts.

In a poignant speech before today´s vote, Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) warned against trusting such promises. In 1993, Rep. Hastings cast a controversial vote for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) - the deal that spawned the status quo trade model that Fast Track would expand. Today, Hastings stated: In the 20 plus years that I´ve served in this body, I can think of only three votes which I deeply regret making and one of those was in support of NAFTA. In the years since, I´ve seen, after NAFTA, a decrease in American jobs, a rollback of critical environmental protections, here and in Mexico where I was promised that the environmental circumstances in the maquiladoras would be cleared up - and they were not - and a stagnation of wages that has prevented the financial upward mobility of working class and middle class Americans and has ground poor Americans into poverty beyond belief.

Rep. Hastings made clear that he has learned from NAFTA´s broken promises and urged his colleagues to stand firm by continuing to oppose Fast Track´s expansion of the trade status quo: If we´re going to create trade policy that is worthy of future generations, then we must ensure that policy strengthens-not weakens-labor rights. It must strengthen-not weaken-environmental protections. It must ensure other countries responsibility to adhere to basic human rights. It must expand and strengthen our middle class, not squeeze hardworking Americans in favor of corporate interests. The legislation included in this rule today is part of a trade package that does nothing to bolster these important priorities.

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