Reuters reports that, “Political pressure grew on President Barack Obama to reconsider pending trade deals with Panama, Colombia and South Korea as over 100 lawmakers called on Wednesday for a massive revamp of U.S. trade policy.”
“The 106 lawmakers, most of them members of Obama’s Democratic party, introduced legislation requiring a comprehensive review of the economic impact of existing major trade deals, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, before any new ones are considered.”
With 435 members in the US House of Representatives, the 106 sponsors of the TRADE Act represent 1/4 of the members of the House.
Reuters notes, “Obama is expected to deliver a speech sometime soon outlining his views on trade.”
Roll Call adds that, “President Barack Obama, who campaigned against the NAFTA model of free-trade agreements, has said his administration is going to set out a new plan on free-trade agreements. (Representative Mike) Michaud (Democrat-Maine) said the TRADE Act encapsulates many of the principles that Obama pronounced on the campaign trail and when he met with the House Trade Working Group while he was seeking its members’ endorsements.”
“The bill has the support of several progressive organizations, such as Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, environmental groups and all the major unions, including the AFL-CIO and Change to Win.”
The Council of Canadians supports the review and renegotiation of NAFTA and other harmful trade agreements, as required under the TRADE Act.
The Reuters article is at http://mobile.reuters.com/mobile/m/FullArticle/CPOL/npoliticsNews_uUSTRE55N65V20090624.
Roll Call is at http://www.rollcall.com/news/36239-1.html.
The Public Citizen media release on the TRADE Act is at http://www.citizen.org/hot_issues/issue.cfm?ID=2289. Their web-page on the Act is at http://www.citizen.org/trade/tradeact/.
A recent Council of Canadians campaign blog on the TRADE Act is at http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=827.
