Peru trade agreement plows forward

The Peru Free Trade Agreement overwhelmingly passed both the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee in late September.

The Senate Finance Committee passed the implementation legislation for the Peru FTA with a vote of 18-3. Despite WORC’s opposition to this agreement, WORC state Senators on that committee all voted for the agreement. Those Senators include Senators Baucus (MT), Conrad (ND), Wyden (OR), Salazar (CO) and Crapo (ID).

The House Ways and Means Committee also passed the agreement by voice vote and although there was no roll call, WORC’s lone Representative on that committee Rep. Pomeroy (ND) has stated that he supports the agreement.

WORC has opposed the Peru trade agreement because it continues the same broken trade model imposed by NAFTA and CAFTA. Peru FTA actually expands beyond CAFTA to extend investor-to-state enforcement rights that allow foreign companies to sue local, state and national government over laws protecting the health and safety of their citizens.

The Peru trade agreement is not beneficial for United States or the Peruvian citizens. It is a step toward the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which would extend the current faulty trade model to 31 additional countries and devastate farmers and ranchers and other working families throughout the Western Hemisphere. The proposed Peru trade agreement has dangerous agricultural impacts in its own right, but when coupled with CAFTA and viewed as vehicle to the FTAA, the implications are truly onerous.

Trade agreements must not jeopardize the ability of farmers and ranchers in the U.S. or Peru to provide a domestic food supply. Trade agreements must honor local, state and national governments’ duty to protect the health and safety of their citizens. This model does not meet these tests.

—Jeri Lynn Bakken