|
Highlighting a Trade Agreement Attack on Environmental and Public Health Safeguards |
 |
|
Kate Horner, policy analyst at Friends of the Earth, speaks about the environmental impacts of mining operations in El Salvador at a press briefing. Thanks to broad rights granted to corporate investors under the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the U.S. subsidiary of a multinational mining firm is suing the Salvadoran government for millions of dollars over policies designed to protect citizens' health and the environment. |
Trade and investment agreements, from global pacts like the World Trade Organization to regional pacts like NAFTA and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), have set rules for the global economy that put the rights and profits of multinational corporations before the rights of communities and the protection of the environment.
What’s the solution? Transform the way trade and investment agreements are written so that they prioritize people’s rights to work and live in a healthy and safe environment.
Friends of the Earth works to challenge trade and investment rules that threaten environmental protection and to advance fair and environmentally sound policies that instead promote sustainable development, worker and human rights, public health and corporate accountability.
The current direction of international trade policy is unsettled due largely to the success of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in exposing the failures of current policies and slowing their expansion. Negotiations at the World Trade Organization are stalled. In Congress, bilateral agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea have also met stiff opposition and are languishing without approval.
With President Obama’s campaign promises to reform U.S. trade policy and a strong progressive coalition in Congress committed to making trade work for people and the environment -- not just multinational corporations -- now is a critical time to press for change.
In 2010, Friends of the Earth is pushing Congress to pass the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act, a comprehensive trade reform bill that would set new rules to ensure that existing and future trade pacts advance the public interest. We are also working to hold President Obama accountable to his pledge to advance fair trade policies as his administration negotiates a new trade pact with Pacific countries.
