Club urges Congress not to give up power to fix harmful trade
deals
By Jenny Coyle
It was a Saturday night in Houston, hot and muggy like it can get
in August. Nan Hildreth was sitting at her desk reading e-mail when
the phone rang. It was her congresswoman, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee,
wanting to talk about the Sierra Club's position on a new
anti-environmental fast track bill.
"It was a bit of a surprise that she called, yes," said Hildreth,
Texas' leader for the Sierra Club's Responsible Trade Campaign. But
then, there was plenty of heat being placed on Jackson Lee, a
Democrat, to publicly oppose the bill.
"She'd refused to meet with environmentalists, so we swamped her
office with several thousand postcards asking her to vote against
fast track," Hildreth said. "The Houston Group sent her an official
letter opposing fast track. We issued an e-mail alert asking folks
to call her. We phone-banked a couple of hundred environmentalists
in her district asking them to urge her to vote against fast track.
In short, we got her attention."
At issue is fast-track legislation H.R. 2149, the Trade Promotion
Authority Act, introduced by Philip Crane (R-Ill.). Under fast
track, Congress gives up the power to fix trade deals made by the
president, even when those deals threaten the environment and
worker's rights.
"Fast track would pave the way for expanding NAFTA (the North
American Free Trade Agreement) to the rest of the Americas," said
Dan Seligman, director of the Responsible Trade Campaign. "This
would open the door to widespread corporate lawsuits against
environmental protections."
So how bad is NAFTA?
Take the case of California's decision to ban MTBE, a toxic
gasoline additive used to reduce air pollution, but which has
contaminated drinking-water wells and groundwater throughout the
state. After Gov. Gray Davis announced the ban, Methanex - the
Canadian corporation that helps to manufacture MTBE - sued the
United States in a NAFTA court for $1 billion, saying the ban had
cost it money.
(The United States isn't always the victim: A California company
won $19 million in a NAFTA lawsuit against Mexico after a state
government there blocked the company's plans for a toxic waste
dump.)
The Bush administration intends to use fast track to expand NAFTA
across the Americas in a trade deal called the Free Trade Area of
the Americas. The draft FTAA contains the same kind of corporate
lawsuit provisions as in NAFTA. Tens of thousands of people,
including members of the Sierra Club and Sierra Student Coalition,
protested when Bush attended the Summit of the Americas in Quebec in
April to tout the FTAA. (See June 2001
Planet.)
As the Bush administration pressures Congress for fast track
authority, the Sierra Club pushes for "right track," urging
representatives and senators to maintain their power to alter the
provisions of trade agreements, making it more likely that they are
clean, green and fair.
In Portland, Ore., a coalition including Brent Foster and other
members of the Oregon Chapter, set up a booth at a local fair and
generated hundreds of grassroots calls to members of Congress by
using a cell phone.
And in New York, under the leadership of Atlantic Chapter member
Jim Mays, activists have had sit-down chats with every undecided
member of the state's congressional delegation. Meanwhile, back
in Texas, Jackson Lee has yet to take a public position. But at
least the congresswoman has sent Nan Hildreth a clear signal that
the channels of communication are open.
More information on the Fast Track Trade Authority
Bill
Take Action:
As The Planet went to press, action on fast track was expected in
late September or October. Call your representative and urge him or
her to vote against H.R. 2149, and reject any fast-track legislation
that allows the negotiation of trade deals that would undermine
protection of the United States' environment.
If you're told that the vote has already taken place, ask how
your decision-makers voted. Thank those who opposed the bill and
voice your objections to those who supported it.
For more information, check out www.sierraclub.org/trade/fasttrack.
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