Act Now: Tell Congress a NAFTA Replacement Must End Job Outsourcing and Protect the Environment!

Too many Americans haven’t seen a real pay increase since the eighties and can’t find better-paying jobs in part because of corporate-rigged trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Now NAFTA is being renegotiated, and the deadline is looming. The stakes could not be higher for workers and the environment throughout North America.

NAFTA grants corporations vast new privileges that make it easier to outsource jobs while empowering them to attack the environmental and health laws on which we all rely.

NAFTA’s lack of labor or environmental standards means wages in Mexico are now below those in China. Under NAFTA, U.S. firms that outsource production to Mexico can pay industrial workers less than $2 an hour and dump toxins with impunity. And then ship the products back here for sale under NAFTA's favorable terms.

To date, almost one million American jobs have been certified by the government as lost to NAFTA, with more being outsourced every week.

Already, multinational corporations have grabbed $392 million in taxpayer money using NAFTA’s infamous Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) tribunals.

ISDS empowers corporations to sue governments before a panel of three corporate lawyers. These lawyers can order taxpayers to pay the corporations unlimited sums of money, including for the loss of their expected future profits.

The multinational corporations only need to convince the lawyers that a law protecting public health, a food safety regulation or a pro-environment court ruling violates their special NAFTA rights. The corporate lawyers' decisions are not subject to appeal.

As representatives from Mexico, the United States and Canada rush to finish NAFTA renegotiations, we must fight for a deal that puts people and the planet above corporate profits.

Contacting Arizona Senator Flake:

https://www.flake.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-jeff

Washington, D.C. Office
P: 202-224-4521
F: 202-228-0515

Phoenix Office
P: 602-840-1891
F: 602-840-4092

Tucson Office
P: 520-575-8633
F: 520-797-3232

Senators contact information: 

https://contactingcongress.org

Ask your Congress Members to make sure that the NAFTA replacement:

• Eliminates the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system and the special investor protections it enforces that make it less risky and cheaper to outsource jobs, and that also empower corporations to attack environmental and health laws before tribunals of three corporate lawyers and get unlimited payouts of our tax dollars.
• And adds strong labor and environmental standards with swift and certain enforcement to raise wages and strengthen lax environmental rules in Mexico to prevent companies from moving jobs to pay workers a pittance and dump toxins.

Fight ISDA - a NAFTA clause that allows corporations to sue governments that pass environmental or labor protection laws that hurt their profits

Ethyl's lawyers disputed the Canadian government's ban on the known neurotoxin MMA

The next round of NAFTA renegotiation talks are scheduled for October in Washington, D.C. and SumOfUs is showing up big time. With your help, we're demanding an end to the dangerous clause buried inside NAFTA that allows corporations to sue governments and be awarded unlimited sums in secretive tribunals of corporate lawyers.

That's right, because of some heavy corporate lobbying, the clause, known as Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), allows corporate executives to dispute a country’s laws, like important environmental and labor protection laws, if it is deemed these policies will negatively impact the corporation's profits.
Join the fight against NAFTA corporate power-grabbing, sign now!

In one ISDS jurisdiction, the Canadian government was forced to pay $13 million in damages and legal fees to a giant chemical manufacturing company known as Ethyl. In the lawsuit, Ethyl's lawyers disputed the Canadian government's ban on the known neurotoxin MMA, which is, by no coincidence, an Ethyl product. Ethyl lawyers bullied the government in the secretive ISDS tribunal to lift the ban on the company's product AND pay the corporation $13 million in damages and legal fees. This abuse of ISDS forced the Canadian government to prioritize corporate profits over public health and the environment.

This can't continue. Now more than ever it's important we stay vigilant to make sure that corporate interests don’t hijack these important renegotiations. Lobbyists and corporate executives are counting on the public to not pay attention so they can keep expanding their profit-centered ISDS clause and continue undermining important laws. Let’s show them that we're paying attention and we're not going anywhere.

- SumOfUs

NAFTA’s Legacy: Expanding Corporate Power to Attack Public Interests Laws, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, 1 February 2017
The Court That Rules The World, Buzzfeed, 28 August 2016
NAFTA's ISDS: Why Canada Is One of the Most Sued Countries in the World, CommonDreams, 23 October 2015.
Investor-State Attacks: Health, ISDS Corporate Attacks, September 2017

Tell U.S. Trade Rep: Replace NAFTA with a deal that benefits working people in all 3 countries, not just multinational corporations.

The Trump administration officially notified Congress it will be renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

NAFTA made it easier for corporations to offshore jobs and to attack environmental, health, and other safeguards. It killed jobs and depressed wages for millions, and it was written and negotiated behind closed doors by hundreds of corporate advisers.

Tell the U.S. Trade Representative now: Replace NAFTA with a deal that actually benefits working people in all three countries, not just multinational corporations. If enough of us speak out, we can stop corporate elites from calling the shots and put an end to their rigged, devastating trade deals.

Dear USTR Robert Lighthizer:

Your renegotiation of NAFTA is an opportunity to stop its ongoing damage and create a deal that benefits working people, not just big corporations. That is why we call on you to meet these criteria in any new agreement with Canada and Mexico:

*Institute a democratic, accountable, and transparent negotiating process without privileged backroom access for corporate interests.

*Eliminate the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system, which promotes job offshoring and gives multinational corporations power to sue the U.S. government before a tribunal of three corporate lawyers. These lawyers can order U.S. taxpayers to pay corporations unlimited sums of money, including for the loss of expected future profits.

*Include strong and enforceable labor and environmental standards, not the ineffective rules found in deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

*Require all imported food, goods, and services in the agreement to meet strong domestic safety and environmental rules.

*Eliminate rules that waive important Buy American and Buy Local policies.

*Eliminate rules that drive up the cost of life-saving medicines by giving pharmaceutical companies extended monopolies on drug patents.

- Our Revolution

Sign this petition now. 

Trump to renegotiate NAFTA? Yikes!

Donald Trump has formally announced his intention to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada.

NAFTA has been a disaster for the American worker — and so has Trump. Reworking this trade deal under the current administration is likely to make things even worse.

Don't let the Trump administration give corporations even more favors in NAFTA 2.0!

There's a lot that's wrong with NAFTA, from the outsourcing of hundreds of thousands of jobs to giving foreign corporations the power to challenge our country's laws and regulations. As a result, corporations have forced through things like the overturning of country-of-origin food labeling and sued for damages after the Keystone XL pipeline was initially rejected.

If our government actually pushed for new terms of the agreement that prioritized people and the environment over corporate profits, that would be one thing. But if left to their own devices, Trump administration negotiators will continue favoring Wall Street investors at a steep cost to the rest of us. Demand that any renegotiation of NAFTA puts people first!

Trump has ongoing conflicts of interest — including businesses in Canada and Mexico. And we've seen Trump's leaked draft plan for NAFTA negotiations. It reads like a corporate wish list and includes incentives for offshoring jobs, continued use of corporate tribunals for challenging domestic laws, rollbacks on food safety policies, and more.

Now that NAFTA renegotiations are really happening, it's time we made some demands of our own, including:

• a transparent negotiating process
• strong, enforceable labor and environmental standards
• reinstatement of country-of-origin labeling for food imports
• an end to the current dispute resolution system that allows corporations to sue governments and have a decision made by a tribunal of corporate lawyers.

We need to shine a very bright light on this proposed renegotiation process, just like Food & Water Watch helped to do to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) last year.

All too often, these trade agreements are negotiated behind closed doors by corporate advisers, with no input from the rest of us. And we've seen how that works out: lost jobs, depressed wages, undermined health and labor standards. We need trade agreements that actually benefit working people, not just Wall Street's bottom line.

- Amanda Byrnes, Food & Water Watch
act@fwwatch.org

Tell the U.S. Trade Representative now: Replace NAFTA with a deal that benefits working people in all 3 countries, not just multinational corporations

The Trump administration officially notified Congress it will be renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

NAFTA made it easier for corporations to offshore jobs and to attack environmental, health, and other safeguards.

It killed jobs and depressed wages for millions. Hundreds of corporate advisors helped negotiate it behind closed doors.

Tell the U.S. Trade Representative now: Replace NAFTA with a deal that actually benefits working people in all three countries, not just multinational corporations.

If enough of us speak out, we can stop corporate elites from calling the shots and put an end to their rigged, devastating trade deals.

Sign the petition today calling for NAFTA renegotiations that really support working people.

Dear USTR Robert Lighthizer:

Your renegotiation of NAFTA is an opportunity to stop its ongoing damage and create a deal that benefits working people, not just big corporations.

That is why we call on you to meet these criteria in any new agreement with Canada and Mexico:

1. Institute a democratic, accountable, and transparent negotiating process without privileged backroom access for corporate interests.


2. Eliminate the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system, which promotes job offshoring and gives multinational corporations power to sue the U.S. government before a tribunal of three corporate lawyers. These lawyers can order U.S. taxpayers to pay corporations unlimited sums of money, including for the loss of expected future profits.


3. Include strong and enforceable labor and environmental standards, not the ineffective rules found in deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).


4. Require all imported food, goods, and services in the agreement to meet strong domestic safety and environmental rules.


5. Eliminate rules that waive important Buy American and Buy Local policies.


6. Eliminate rules that drive up the cost of life-saving medicines by giving pharmaceutical companies extended monopolies on drug patents.

Add your name: Demand a NAFTA renegotiations benefit working people, not corporations

The Trump administration officially notified Congress it will be renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

NAFTA made it easier for corporations to offshore jobs and to attack environmental, health, and other safeguards.

It killed jobs and depressed wages for millions. Hundreds of corporate advisers helped negotiate it behind closed doors.

Tell the U.S. Trade Representative now: Replace NAFTA with a deal that actually benefits working people in all three countries, not just multinational corporations.

If enough of us speak out, we can stop corporate elites from calling the shots and put an end to their rigged, devastating trade deals.

- Replace NAFTA

Target: U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer

Add your name: Demand a NAFTA renegotiations benefit working people, not corporations.

You will be signing this:

To: U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer
From: [Your Name]

Dear USTR Robert Lighthizer:

Your renegotiation of NAFTA is an opportunity to stop its ongoing damage and create a deal that benefits working people, not just big corporations.

That is why we call on you to meet these criteria in any new agreement with Canada and Mexico:

1. Institute a democratic, accountable, and transparent negotiating process without privileged backroom access for corporate interests.

2. Eliminate the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system, which promotes job offshoring and gives multinational corporations power to sue the U.S. government before a tribunal of three corporate lawyers. These lawyers can order U.S. taxpayers to pay corporations unlimited sums of money, including for the loss of expected future profits.

3. Include strong and enforceable labor and environmental standards, not the ineffective rules found in deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

4. Require all imported food, goods and services in the agreement to meet strong domestic safety and environmental rules.

5. Eliminate rules that waive important Buy American and Buy Local policies.

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Thank you!  It's time for a trade policy that works for working people.