U.S.-Peru trade pact gets mixed reaction from labor
Congress is on track to approve a
foreign trade agreement that, for the
first time ever, contains enforceable
workers’ rights protections. That’s
something the union movement has
been demanding for years, and yet the
U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement
has gotten mixed reactions from U.S.
unions.
The AFL-CIO is neither supporting
nor opposing the treaty, though some of
its affiliate unions have taken stands.
The American Federation of Television
and Radio Artists (AFTRA), American
Federation of Musicians (AFM), and
the Screen Actors’ Guild (SAG) are
supporting the agreement because it
would require Peru to better enforce
copyright protections that benefit union
actors and musicians. The International
Association of Machinists is opposed to
it, on the other hand, arguing that the
United States should undertake a strate-
gic review of all past trade agreements
before engaging in any new agree-
ments. Unions in the Change to Win la-
bor federation are also opposed to the
Peru deal.
Most Peruvian labor and farmers or-
ganizations also oppose the treaty.
Peruvian products already enter the
United States virtually tariff-free under
the Andean Trade Preference Act,
which gives four South American coun-
tries open access to U.S. markets, in re-
turn for their cooperation in combatting
drug trafficking. The new agreement
will drop Peruvian tariffs on U.S. goods
and services, and add numerous in-
vestor rights and intellectual property
protections along the lines of NAFTA.
When the Peru agreement was first
negotiated by the Bush Administration,
it looked a lot like NAFTA and
CAFTA, treaties with Mexico and Cen-
tral America that Congress approved
despite vigorous opposition from
unions. But Democrats took control of
the House and Senate at the beginning
of this year, and signaled to the Bush
Administration that they wouldn’t rat-
7LUHG
RI
:RUNLQJ
LQ
3$,1"
0RVW,QVXUDQFH
3ODQV$FFHSWHG
3 P 528'/<
ROUDLY 6
S (59,1*
ERVING
P
ORTLAND
W
3 257/$1' : ORKERS
25.(56
OR O VER 32 Y EARS
) F 25
2 9(5 < ($56
OCTOBER 5, 2007
Above, sixteen activists from Portland Jobs with Justice and the Portland Central America Solidarity Committee
occupy the lobby of Congressman Earl Blumenauer’s Portland office Sept. 17 to demand he vote “no” on a trade
agreement with Peru. Participants included several union activists and two elected union leaders: Richard Beetle,
business manager of Laborers Local 483, and Madelyn Elder, president of Communications Workers of America
Local 7901. When protesters began blocking the entryway, police were called and four were arrested: Laurie King,
Pete Shaw, Daniel Denvir and Amanda Shank. Blumenauer voted for the treaty in a committee meeting the following
day.
ify any trade treaty unless enforceable
workers rights and environmental pro-
tection provisions were added. To the
surprise of many, the White House con-
ceded the point, and quickly negotiated
the additional clauses on treaties with
Peru, Panama, South Korea and Colom-
bia.
The labor rights part of the treaty re-
quires that both Peru and the United
States enforce the “core” labor stan-
dards of the International Labor Orga-
nization, including a ban on forced la-
bor or child labor, protection against
discrimination, and the right of workers
to unionize. If either country fails to en-
force these rights, the other country can
file a trade complaint, which could in
theory lead to trade sanctions.
But several other provisions in the
treaty drew criticism from the AFL-
CIO, including a ban on any new law
requiring a government to buy only do-
mestic-made goods or services; and the
right of foreign corporations to sue the
government (that would give foreign in-
vestors greater rights than U.S. investors
have under the U.S. Constitution.) Such
provisions have become standard in the
so-called “free trade” agreements the
United States now has with 15 coun-
tries.
Passage of the Peru agreement
seems assured. The treaty passed the
House Ways and Means Committee by
unanimous voice vote Sept. 25 and is
expected to get a vote on the House
floor some time this month; it would
then go before the Senate.
Oregon Congressman Earl Blume-
nauer, a Democrat, sits on Ways and
Means and voted yes.
“It contains what people back home
told me they wanted,” Blumenauer told
the NW Labor Press, referring to the
workers’ rights and environmental pro-
tections.
One day prior to the vote, commu-
nity activists and several local labor
leaders staged a sit-in in Blumenauer’s
Portland office; four were arrested and
charged with criminal trespass.
Thea Lee, the national AFL-CIO’s
trade policy expert, said the treaty isn’t
likely to have much impact on jobs in
the United States because Peru has such
a small economy.
But for the activists who took over
Blumenauer’s office, the impact on
Peru mattered. The United States sub-
sidizes corn and rice farmers in a way
that Peru can’t afford to, so when Peru
drops import barriers, farmers there will
lose their livelihoods, perhaps even mi-
grating to the United States, protesters
said.
Not to worry, says Blumenauer: The
Peru agreement phases out food import
barriers over a 17-year period; and po-
litical momentum is building to elimi-
nate farm subsidies, which are a drain
on taxpayers.
The treaty with Panama is also ex-
pected to pass, though it hadn’t come up
for a committee vote as of press time.
%HHVRQ &KLURSUDFWLF
KHOSVEULQJWKH
UHOLHI\RXQHHG
7UHDWPHQWIRUSDLQGXHWR
RYHUXVHDQGUHSHWLWLYHPRWLRQ
&KLURSUDFWLFDGMXVWPHQWV
7UHDWPHQWIRUDFFLGHQWDQG
VSRUWVUHODWHGLQMXULHV
5HKDELOLWDWLRQH[HUFLVHV
7KHUDSHXWLFPDVVDJH
,QWHUQDOGLDJQRVLVDQGWUHDWPHQW
/DEWHVWVDQG[UD\V
'U'DQ%HHVRQ&KLURSUDFWRU
6(7KLUWHHQWK$YHLQ6HOOZRRG
&$//
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
PAGE 9
