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Resolution
REJECT NEW TRADE AGREEMENTS
WITH PERU AND COLOMBIA
Whereas, the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has caused net jobs
losses in every U.S. state and District of
Columbia, for a combined total of over one
million lost U.S. jobs, including almost 40,000
lost jobs in Florida alone; and
Whereas,
NAFTA also has a proven record of
negative impacts in Mexico, as under NAFTA the
median industrial wage has lost 10% of its value
and more than 1.3 million Mexican farmers have
lost their livelihood and migrated to the cities
and to the borders looking for jobs in the
maquiladoras; and
Whereas,
the U.S. Congress is currently considering
urgently needed immigration reform policies to
address the status of millions of undocumented
workers in the United States, but has not
included in the discussion any recognition of
the fact that undocumented migration to the U.S.
from Mexico has more than doubled since NAFTA
was enacted, not to mention the fact that
increased U.S. border policing and
militarization since NAFTA has lead to more than
2700 deaths from failed border crossing in
desperate attempts to seek the American dream;
and
Whereas,
the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR),
instead of investigating ways to fix the deeply
troubling problems with NAFTA, continues to push
for is unmodified expansion, including through
the passage by a one-vote margin July 27, 2005
of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA);
and
Whereas,
the USTR has negotiated new trade
agreements modeled on the NAFTA and CAFTA
agreements with the South American countries of
Peru and Colombia; and
Whereas,
like NAFTA and CAFTA, these new
agreements fail to included adequate enforcement
for violations of internationally recognized
labor and environmental standards; and
Whereas,
this failure to include
enforceable international labor standards comes
despite the fact that:
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Over 2,000 labor union
members have been assassinated in Colombia
since 1990, including 75 in 2005 alone, and
the violence continues as Mr. Daniel Cortez,
a member of the Sintraelecol electrical
workers union was shot to death by armed
assailants on April 2, 2006 for his union
organizing activities; and
-
The International Labor
Organization (ILO) and the U.S. State
Department have published reports of
extensive child labor practices in Peru; and
-
Anti-union labor
regulations that have led to a severe
decline in unionization rates, so that now
the number of private-sector unionized
workers in Peru is only one-sixth of what it
was 20 years ago; and
-
President Alejandro
Toledo’s public statements last year that he
would support a trade agreement that
would included an enforceable commitment to
adopt and comply with ILO core labor
standards—a step that was immediately
rejected by House Republican Ways and Means
Committee Chairman Bill Thomas,
Whereas,
the U.S.-Peru and Colombia
agreements include the same foreign investor
rights modeled after NAFTA that allow foreign
corporations to bring actions against
governments that pass environmental laws that
might reduce corporate profits, despite the fact
that new environmental laws are desperately
needed in the Andean countries to allay to rapid
destruction of the upper Amazon basin, which is
the most biodiverse area on the planet; and
Whereas,
well-documented reports from the
Colombian government, as well as statements from
Peruvian farm organizations and religious
leaders express certainty that the agricultural
rules included in the new agreements will push
hundreds of thousands of small farmers into
bankruptcy — as happened in Mexico after NAFTA —
and that the pressure to feed their families
would forces these farmers to grow more coca for
cocaine production or join illegal armed groups,
leading to an increase in violence and
insecurity in the regions; and
Whereas,
LULAC joined the Congressional
Hispanic Caucus in opposition to the Central
American Free Trade Agreement, on which the
U.S.-Peru and U.S.-Colombia Free Trade
Agreements are based, and none of the problems
cited by LULAC with regards to CAFTA — from
labor and environmental standards to
agricultural provisions to investor rules — have
been resolved in the texts of the new
agreements,
NOw
Therefore, be it resolved, that
LULAC calls upon our state-level organizations
and local chapters to educate members about the
negative impacts of NAFTA and CAFTA and the
threat that the U.S.-Peru and U.S.-Colombia free
trade agreements pose to workers, health and
prosperity and that LULAC supports the efforts
of fair trade advocates to defeat passage of
these agreements; and be it finally resolved
that LULAC urges members of congress to reject
the U.S.-Peru and U.S.-Colombia Free Trade
Agreements and work for fair trade agreements
that raise the standards of living for labor and
protects our environmental standards.
Adopted this 1st day of July
2006.
Rosa Rosales
LULAC National President |
