Obama Pushes NAFTA-Style Korea Trade Deal

By James Ploeser and Beatriz Lopez

It’s the moment we hoped would never come. President Obama has announced he’ll submit to Congress the Bush-negotiated, NAFTA-style Korea trade deal. Obama is moving forward on this job-killing trade deal with Korea without living up to his fair trade campaign commitments. The Korea vote will be the first major congressional trade vote of the Obama presidency, and it’s going to come up fast in the New Year.

Act Now!

We can and must defeat the Korea FTA, but only if we all work together, and quickly.

Please use this form to call your Representative to demand that he/she oppose the NAFTA-style Korea trade deal. Then report back what you hear using the online Korea Trade Vote Tracker!

Working together — holding our Representatives accountable in every congressional district — we can win.

Background

The Korea trade deal carries a price tag of 159,000 more lost American jobs. It perpetuates the NAFTA model of environmental destruction and of granting extraordinary rights for multinational corporations. And, unlike past deals with developing countries with small economies, there are over 200 Korean corporate affiliates already operating in the U.S. The Korea FTA would newly empower these investors to attack vital U.S. financial reforms, as well as environmental, safety and labor laws, before foreign tribunals.

If we don’t stop the Korea FTA and hold Obama to his campaign promises, it will pave the way for additionally offensive trade deals with unionist murder capital Colombia and tax haven Panama. And, right now Obama is negotiating his first trade deal called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. If we do not stop this NAFTA-style deal with Korea, you can expect that an Obama-negotiated FTA might look all but identical to the Bush-done deals.

We need your help to track your Representative’s stance! Use this form to call your House Reps, demand that he/she oppose the Korea trade deal, and report back what you hear.

The fight will be in the House — the Senate is a secondary concern. So we’re using a new web tool to keep the House tally. Once you’ve called your Congressperson’s office, use the Korea Trade Vote Tracker to report what you heard. Together, we can rally enough opposition to see this trade deal go down in flames.

Thanks for all you do.   Φ

James Ploeser and Beatriz Lopez are Senior Field Organizers for Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch program.