[Sosfbay-discuss] Eshoo Town Halls Saturday

[Gerry Gras]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [ppjc] Action Alerts - Eshoo Town Halls / Trade Legislation
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:55:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: Peninsula Peace and Justice Center <ppjc at peaceandjustice.org>
To: <gerrygras at earthlink.net>





Peninsula Peace and Justice Center
http://www.peaceandjustice.org

Urgent Action Alert

1.  Congresswoman Anna Eshoo Town Hall Meetings
2.  Tell Congress to oppose the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement

Congresswoman Anna Eshoo has just announced  two town hall meetings for 
this weekend:

Saturday, October 13
9:00 am - 10:30 am
Scotts Valley City Council Chambers
1 Civic Center Drive
Scotts Valley

Saturday, October 13
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
San Mateo County Supervisors Chambers
400 County Center
Redwood City

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The following alert comes from Citizens Trade Campaign:

The Bush administration has begun moving the Peru Free Trade Agreement 
through Congress. A
final vote in the House of Representatives is expected in the first half 
of October, with the Senate
to follow. Please contact your Representative and Senators immediately 
to urge them to oppose
the Peru Free Trade Agreement.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1034/t/537/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=13543

Labor, environmental, and access to medicines amendments to the Peru FTA 
under an agreement
between House Democrats and the Bush administration represent 
significant improvements to
these important provisions. However, major problems of the NAFTA/CAFTA 
model replicated in
the Peru FTA were not addressed:

   * The Peru FTA contains a NAFTA/CAFTA-style foreign investor chapter 
that promotes
     off-shoring and subjects our domestic environmental, zoning, health 
and other public
     interest policies to challenge directly by foreign investors in 
foreign tribunals. It allows
     challenges by foreign investors in foreign tribunals of to 
challenge timber, mining,
     construction and other concession contracts with the U.S. federal 
government, and affords
     foreign investors greater rights than those enjoyed by U.S. investors.
   * The Peru FTA's procurement rules subject many common federal and 
state procurement
     policies to challenge in trade tribunals, continue the NAFTA/CAFTA 
ban on
     anti-off-shoring and Buy America policies, and expose U.S. 
renewable energy, recycled
     content and other requirements to challenge.
   * The Peru FTA's agriculture trade rules undermine U.S. producers' 
ability to earn a fair price
     for their crops at home and in the global market place. They favor 
multinational grain
     trading and food processing companies while farmers on both ends 
will be hurt. The Peru
     FTA is projected to increase hunger; illicit drug cultivation; 
undocumented migration; and
     continue the race to the bottom for commodity prices, pitting 
farmer against farmer and
     country against country to see who can produce food the cheapest, 
regardless of standards
     on labor, the environment or food safety.
   * While the amended text of the Peru FTA removes the most egregious, 
CAFTA-based,
     provisions limiting the access to affordable medicines, it still 
includes NAFTA-style
     provisions that undermine the right to affordable medicines for 
poorer countries.
   * The Peru FTA, like NAFTA and CAFTA, still contains language 
requiring the United States
     to accept imported food that does not meet our safety standards.

The United States should not adopt any new trade agreements until there 
is a thorough assessment
of the effects of existing FTAs, and until a new model for trade 
agreements is developed that can
ensure future trade agreements minimally do no further harm to working 
families and the
environment. The Peru Free Trade Agreement meets neither of these 
requirements. Please tell your
Representative and Senators to oppose the Peru Free Trade Agreement.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1034/t/537/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=13543

----------------------


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